CSS Hunley and its loss- Finally explained?

[oldpop2000]

I just thought I would throw this tidbit out here. As you all should know, the Confederates developed a submarine- the Hunley. Well, it was actually a submarine torpedo boat with a spar torpedo. It was hand-cranked and on the night of 17 February 1864 it went out and sank the Union warship the USS Housatonic. This was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy ship. However, it never returned and finally, in 2000 it was found and raised to be investigated by scientists at Clemson.

The question is how they all died in the submarine and now they believe they have figured it out. Here is an article that explains the loss of the boat.


gizmodo.com/the-surprising-way-a-confederate-submarine-crew-died-at-1798350401

[cv10]

Thank goodness it sank before it was used to sink another one of the blockade ships! It might have been something of a game-changer if had returned successfully. I know the sub itself was a crude design, but it did sink one of the navy's more modern warships at the time. The USS Housatonic had been launched in 1861, and unlike many other ships in the blockade, was a proper warship and not a merchantman with a few guns installed.

[oldpop2000]

It is my opinion that the Hunley action was a proof of concept. It showed that an underwater vessel using ordnance could sink a ship by using stealth to sneak up on it. It worked. There were consequences that scientist and engineers did not know about, but the proof of concept succeeded.

We know that the first submarine powered by mechanical means and not human was the Plongeur by France in 1863. It was equipped with a reciprocating engine and use compressed air. In 1866, Whitehead developed the first self-propelled torpedo. During the 1870's and 80's the design of the hulls for subs was beginning to be examined and perfected. By the turn of the century, thirty-six years after the Hunley, the submarine as we know it, was reality.

The Hunley, while crude, showed that with the proper design of the hull, self-propelled torpedoes and mechanical propulsion, the submarine was a stealth weapon to be feared. The results of Jutland are an testament of how the Hunley proof of concept could affect naval warfare. In my opinion, of course.