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The Confederate submarine HL Hunley
The Confederate submarine HL Hunley is seen at a conservation lab in North Charleston, SC, on 27 January. Photograph: Bruce Smith/AP
The Confederate submarine HL Hunley is seen at a conservation lab in North Charleston, SC, on 27 January. Photograph: Bruce Smith/AP

American civil war submarine begins to reveal its secrets after 150 years

This article is more than 9 years old

Confederate vessel HL Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy warship – but why it went down afterward remains a mystery

A century and a half after it sank and a decade and a half after it was raised, scientists are finally getting a look at the hull of the Confederate submarine HL Hunley, the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship.

What they find may solve the mystery of why the hand-cranked submarine sank during the American civil war.

“It’s like unwrapping a Christmas gift after 15 years. We have been wanting to do this for many years now,” said Paul Mardikian, senior conservator on the Hunley project.

The Hunley sank the USS Housatonic off Charleston in February 1864, as the South tried to break a Union blockade. But the sub and its eight-man crew never made it back to shore. The Hunley was discovered off the South Carolina coast in 1995, raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston.

A conservator works at removing the encrustation from the hull of the Hunley. Photograph: Bruce Smith/AP

It was covered with a hardened gunk of encrusted sand, sediment and rust that scientists call concretion. Last May, it was finally ready to be bathed in a solution of sodium hydroxide to loosen the encrustation. In August, scientists using small air-powered chisels and dental tools began the laborious job of removing the coating.

Now about 70% of the outside hull has been uncovered.

Mardikian said the exposed hull has indeed revealed some clues that may help solve the mystery of the sinking.

“I would have to lie to you if I said we had not, but it’s too early to talk about it yet,” he said. “We have a submarine that is encrypted. It’s like an Enigma machine.”

He said the clues will be studied closely as scientists try to piece together what happened to the 40ft vessel that night in 1864.

The Hunley had a 16ft spar tipped with a charge of black powder that was exploded, sinking the Housatonic. After close examination of the spar two years ago, scientists speculated the crew were knocked unconscious by the shockwave of the explosion.

When the Hunley was raised, scientists speculated the crew may have run out of air before they could crank back to the coast. The sand and silt and the remains of the crew in the interior were removed.

In April 2004, thousands of men in Confederate gray and Union blue walked in a procession with the crew’s coffins four miles from Charleston’s waterfront Battery to Magnolia cemetery, in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.

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