Work On Conserving Hunley Continues

Scientists have removed the rear hatch of the recovered Confederate submarine HL Hunley. The hatch was found to be locked from the inside, an indication that the crew did not panic or try to escape the submarine. The front hatch, where the submarine's commander, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, had his station, was found to be unlocked, however, creating another mystery.

The 40-foot, hand-cranked sub, the first in history to sink an enemy warship, sank off Charleston after sending the Union blockade ship Housatonic to the bottom on Feb. 17, 1864.

The eight Hunley crew members went down with the sub.

The Hunley has two towers with hatches but the rear hatch apparently was locked. After it was removed from the sub, which is in a conservation tank at a lab in North Charleston, the hatch was taken to the lab for X-rays.

The way the sub was configured, most of the crew would have had to have opened that hatch and escaped through the back tower.

The fact it was locked indicates the crew didn't sense an emergency in the last minutes of the sub, said state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston and chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission.

"It ends any speculation that there was panic on board," he said.

Earlier this summer, scientists found that the forward hatch, where Capt. George Dixon would have been piloting the craft, was unlocked.

It's unclear whether that might have been an attempt to escape or simply bring more air into the submarine. Scientists have also speculated it may have simply been damaged while the submarine sat on the ocean floor for 136 years.

"I don't think there was any attempt to escape the submarine that night," McConnell said. "Any attempt to get out of the submarine would have been to the back."

The work on conserving the recovered Hunley has been ongoing for six years. The recovered remains of the entire crew were buried in 2004. Fittingly, they were all buried together next to others who had died during testing of the Hunley.

The Friends of the Hunley organization has a website with lots of pictures, information and current news on the conservation efforts here.