Researchers find new clues on sinking of Confederate submarine off South Carolina
January 14, 2019 | In the PressFrom The Island Packet (https://www.islandpacket.com/news/state/south-carolina/article224512110.html)
Researchers say they’ve found a new clue in the sinking of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, the first successful combat submarine that sank the USS Housatonic off Charleston, South Carolina in 1864. New clues show a broken pipe may have been to blame.
The Hunley vanished soon after it became the first submarine to sink a warship during a battle. The vessel was lost until 1995. Archeologists raised the ship in 2000 and have been working to solve the mystery of why the sub sank ever since, Smithsonian Magazine reports.
Conservators with Clemson University have been cleaning the Hunley of the “concretion — the rock-hard layer of sand, shell and sea life — that gradually encased the Hunley during the nearly 136 years she rested on the sea floor,” according to the news release from The Hunley Project.
The researchers found a broken intake pipe that may have allowed water to flood the submarine. They found a 1-inch gap where the pipe was supposed to connect to the wall of the submarine, according to the release.
