The Sub Closes In and...     
       
   When we left South Carolina for good, they were preparing to raise the sunken Confederate submarine, HL Hunley, named for the man who financed its construction. Thanks to Smithsonian magazine, now we know what they discovered.

   The USS Housatonic was part of a Union blockade of Charleston harbor. The sub was 40 feet long, with a captain and crew of seven, sitting in a row working a crank that turned the propeller. Wow! 

   A stationary cylinder filled with 135 pounds of black powder, way more than necessary, was eight feet below the surface, attached to the end of a long, sloping spar. That night in 1864, sailors on the Union ship spotted the slowly advancing enemy, but had no answer for a partially submerged sub. 

   Contact made, the blast shattered planks upward from the deck. The sub silently disappeared. 

   This article was written by scientist Rachel Lance, who determined to learn how the submariners died. After many tests, she concluded, most likely, they died instantly from the powerful shock wave. 

   Their bodies, more than skeletons even after all these decades, were sitting in their seats, as if sleeping. None had made any effort to escape. 

The Hunley 

   Human lungs and brains cannot withstand blast waves. It's the same force that took civilian lives in Dresden, Germany, folks otherwise unharmed in basements and bomb shelters.

   Only five Union sailors died on the ship. 

Ms. Lance concludes her story:

"The submarine drifted on the outgoing tide. With no one alive to operate the bilge pumps, eventually it started to sink. Water rushed in, bringing the boat to sand, but leaving an air space, inside of which stalactites would grow. The HL Hunley and its crew settled to a quiet grave 30 feet beneath the dark waves." 

      Jimmy