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HUNLEY'S FATE: Sen. Glenn McConnell says some evidence suggests a lone Yankee bullet
may have led to the submarine's sinking.
Friday, September 15, 2000
By BRIAN HICKS
Of The Post and Courier staff
A single Yankee bullet to the Hunley's front conning tower may
have set off a chain of events that slowly sent the Confederate submarine to the bottom of
the Atlantic 136 years ago.
Since the Hunley was raised last month, that is the prevailing
theory that's risen with it, according to state Sen. Glenn McConnell, chairman of
the Hunley Commission.
"Right now, the evidence - if you blend scientific fact with
historical facts - makes it a plausible theory. It just fits as the culprit,"
McConnell said Thursday.
In talks up and down the Eastern Seaboard in recent weeks,
McConnell has entranced audiences with new details about the Confederate submarine - the
first submersible to ever sink an enemy vessel - and its mysterious disappearance.
Although scientists have barely begun to study the sub, a clearer
picture of it is emerging. And, sitting in clear water and laboratory conditions at the
Warren Lasch Conservation Center, the Hunley is slowly beginning to discount some old
theories and revealing evidence that points to the "lucky shot" story.
For instance:
• Scientists
have found a new, and busted, porthole or eyesight on the front of the forward conning
tower. It sits to the port side of the cutwater blade that arches up from the hull to the
tower and - perhaps tellingly - just below a 4-by-6-inch hole in the sub.
Previously, experts thought the Hunley sailed blind unless
someone was looking through an open hatch. That forward porthole, illuminated with
candlelight from the sub's interior, would have served as a bull's-eye for Union soldiers
on the Housatonic.
The damage to the conning tower is unlikely to have come from a
collision because the hatch just above the hole appears undamaged, McConnell says. A
bullet, however, would likely have shattered the cast-iron conning tower. It appears,
McConnell says, that the eye piece was shot in.
• Although
covered with layers of concretion - hardened sand, silt and sediments - the hull so far
shows no signs that it has buckled. One theory has held that the Hunley, too close to the
Housatonic when its 90-pound charge detonated in the Union Sloop of Wars arsenal, could
have sunk from concussion blasts that buckled the iron plates of the hull, allowing water
in.
Another theory was that the Hunley successfully completed its
mission only to sink after it was hit by the Union ship Canandaigua, coming to rescue the
Housatonic's crew. The hull, however, so far shows no signs of impact with another ship.
• And,
the submarine's dive planes are in the up position. McConnell says that indicates the crew
was trying to surface when the Hunley went down.
McConnell, who is out drumming up support for the Confederate
submarine's excavation and restoration, is carting around a slide show and video of the
submarine from its discovery through its recovery.
He says the response to the talks have been "amazing."
So far, McConnell has given his talk in North Carolina and New Jersey, and Wednesday in
Bluffton to the Lowcountry Civil War Roundtable.
The story he tells of the Hunley's final minutes are chilling.
The Union sloop Housatonic, more than three miles off the shore
of Sullivan's Island, is anchored pointing to the northwest. The Hunley's course comes up
the coast, from behind the ship and slightly seaward of it.
The submarine surfaces once, perhaps twice. General P.T.
Beauregard has ordered them to attack on the surface, which makes the Hunley vulnerable to
gunfire. Soldiers on the Housatonic think they see a log or a dolphin. Later some will
report seeing something like a "glowing eye" - possibly the illuminated front
sight.
They open fire on it.
The Hunley rams its charge into the Housatonic and backs away -
toward the open sea, in an outgoing tide.
Sometime during all that, at least one Yankee bullet hit the
forward conning tower, and probably sub commander Lt. George Dixon. Water rushing over the
Hunley's deck would have easily flowed into the submarine.
McConnell says that people close to the project realize the
submarine is so small that, if Dixon were killed, it's unlikely the crew could have moved
him out of the way to get to the controls.
"When we open the submarine, we will be able to tell if
Dixon was shot in the face," McConnell says.
McConnell cites two sources - one Union soldier hanging in the
Housatonic's rigging, and a Confederate on the shore at Battery Marshall - as seeing the
blue light signal from the submarine. That, he says, indicates that whatever else
happened, crew members at least initially thought they could make it home.
"But it's rough out there, and with that hole in the tower,
I believe it was robbed of its positive buoyancy," he said.
Then, even if Dixon were only wounded or the crew could get him
out of the way, there would have been little they could do to keep the sub up.
The biggest test of the theory comes when scientists open the
submarine, probably sometime this fall. Scientists are working on a plan to open the sub
without harming it to allow excavation.
Until then, the archaeologists are hesitant to offer theories.
But looking at the submarine in good light is bringing things into focus.
For instance, McConnell says, the hole on the starboard side near
the stern appears to be damage from an anchor. A smaller hole near the bottom of the
forward section remains a mystery.
Even though he realizes the facts might not bear it out,
McConnell says this is the story that fits best, so he's sticking to it. For now.
"She's proved us wrong before," he says. "The real
mystery won't be solved until the sub is X-rayed and opened."
Used with permission of The Post and
Courier and Charleston.Net
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