How Did the Hunley Crew Die ?

The Crew Drowned, Right? Think Again..........

Being South Carolinians, we often are obsessed with The Civil War. We wear it like a badge of honor, and the H.L. Hunley was one of the South's greatest stories and accomplishments.

The Hunley was the first submarine to have a confirmed sinking of an enemy ship, when it sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor in 1864. Unfortunately, it never made it back to port. The Hunley became flooded and sank in the harbor, where it sat for 131 years, before it was finally located by Glenn McConnell, who has it parked in his driveway to impress chicks - or somewhere in Charleston.

Since it ended up at the bottom of the harbor, one would think that it took on water, and the crew drowned, but evidence is showing that the crew may have already been dead before it sank... The Hunley had a complex pump system that alternated between removing water and changing ballast to allow the sub to dive and resurface. Apparently, the pumps that remove the water were set in the closed position, filling the sub with water, and removing oxygen from the Hunley. This caused the crew to suffocate, not drown as first thought.

Further proof is that the crew were all found in their stations on the sub, which indicates that it was a sudden event, where if it was a drowning, the crew would be in all different areas and intermingled. Is this absolute proof? Nope. There is always the possibility that the crew was knocked unconscious from the powder explosion, then drowned, but they do know that a major valve was closed.....

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