Sub's excavation proves history wrong
Eight men, not nine, were on board when the Confederate vessel sank
BY BRIAN HICKS
Of The Post and Courier Staff
For more than a century, history has told of the nine
brave men who disappeared aboard the H.L. Hunley the night of Feb. 17, 1864.
But, as the excavation of the world's first attack
submarine has proven time and again, history is sometimes wrong.
Archaeologists on Friday said the Hunley carried only a
crew of eight men the night it sank the USS Housatonic more than three miles off
Sullivan's Island - and that's probably all it ever carried. Scientists who
recovered the remains of eight crewmen during the first dig inside the sub have
now excavated enough of the crew compartment that they are sure they are not
going to find the remains of anyone else.
"It is surprising," said Bob Neyland, the
project director. "Everybody always talked about nine individuals. But
we've got eight craniums, eight sets of (leg) bones and eight pairs of
shoes."
Scientists began to question the sub's crew complement
earlier this year. The first clue came when they learned there were only seven
stations for men to crank the propeller shaft - most accounts had said there
were eight. The captain did not crank.
Because the crew bench extended forward beyond the
cranks, archaeologists first assumed that the ninth crewman operated a bellows
used to pump air into the sub. But then the first dig ended with scientists left
holding only eight skulls.
Almost every contemporary story of the Hunley lists its
crew complement as nine - including crucial eyewitness accounts from Confederate
Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard and William Alexander, the engineer who led construction
of the sub and later served as its first officer.
But while that number was accepted without question,
there were several clues that suggested it was wrong. When the Hunley sank for
the first time on Aug. 29, 1863, a survivor named Charles Hasker wrote of
getting out of the forward hatch behind the captain, while one man escaped
through the after hatch. Five men drowned in that accident - a total of eight
crewmen.
When the sub went down for a second time on Oct. 15,
1863, the Charleston Daily Courier listed the casualties as eight men, including
Horace Lawson Hunley. Historians have assumed the sub went out short-handed and
that Lt. George E. Dixon - the eventual commander of the sub - missed that
mission. But Alexander wrote that Dixon was never in Charleston until after the
second sinking.
Finally, more than 30 years after the Hunley
disappeared, a monument to the men was erected in White Point Garden on The
Battery in the 1890s. It names just eight men.
Still, most historical accounts claimed that there were
nine men in the Hunley and, over time, it was just accepted as the truth -
despite all evidence to the contrary.
"It's been there right before our eyes all this
time," Neyland said Friday.
Warren Lasch, chairman of Friends of the Hunley, said
the discovery is a major amendment to the legend of the Hunley.
"Previously we thought the second crew was not a
full crew, but now it appears eight men was the full complement of manpower
required for operation of the vehicle," Lasch said.
Scientists let the mystery linger until they had
excavated enough of the sub to be reasonably sure there were no more nooks or
crannies that could hide the remains of another crewman. This week,
archaeologists reached the forward bulkhead of the submarine and are beginning
to see traces of the sub's controls in the muck.
That progress, coupled with forensics work on the crew
remains, has convinced scientists there was no ninth man on board.
In addition to that revelation, scientists now believe
that the crew was much more diverse than originally thought. Dr. Doug Owsley,
forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution, and his team have been
sorting the remains, trying to put the skeletons back together again. Owsley's
initial study of the remains shows the Hunley crew ranged in age from 19 to
their early 40s.
"With what we have recovered, we can put a face
and age to each set of remains," said Glenn McConnell, chairman of the
Hunley Commission, "but with the exception of Lt. Dixon, the true identity
of each of the others still eludes us."
Neyland says that he is confident the rest of the crew
eventually will be identified. Dixon has been identified because he was at the
captain's post in the sub and by the gold coin in his pocket bearing his
initials - and dented by a bullet at the Battle of Shiloh.
The other men may be identified through health records
and physical descriptions, and by matching artifacts with the skeletons. For
instance, James Wicks, an older man and father of four, is believed to have been
on board. Scientists believe his remains are one of the two older sets.
Along with help from Wicks' descendants, who have
offered to provide DNA samples, scientists could also use artifacts to identify
him. Wicks had been in the U.S. Navy when the war began and soon jumped sides.
Several buttons from a Navy coat were found on board the sub.
If one of the older sets of remains was found near
where all those buttons were concentrated, it could be enough to match a name
with a skeleton.
And finally, one man on board wore the dog tags of
Union soldier Ezra Chamberlin. Historians, genealogists and archaeologists are
working now to figure out whether a Connecticut Yankee allegedly killed on
Morris Island could have found his way into the Hunley.
As the submarine proves time and again, almost anything
is possible.
Contact Brian Hicks at (843) 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com.
Used with permission of The Post and
Courier and Charleston.Net