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Re: First Successful Submarine- not

You have a very detailed explaination. And I am not argueing with you.

IF the damage was caused by a rifle shot from the federals on the Housatonic and filled so fast that the men could not leave their stations, then how did they survive long enough to signal their success with the blue lantern? If the damage was that manageable to survive until that time, then why didn't they abandon ship when they had a chance? Even the crewman nearest Lt Dixon and the damage was not out of position. Surely he would have been helping Dixon try to control the flooding.

We don't know how long it took for the silt to fill the vessel. Did it take 140 years, or just 50? The several items that were found on the floor of the Hunley such as Lt Dixon's coin and two pieces of jewerly had to have fallen out of his pocket after the cloth rotted away as well as their bones, would seem to indicated that there was a period of time for that to occur before they became covered with silt.

If they had time enough to set a grapple anchor then they weren't worried about flooding. Flooding is always the No. 1 problem in a submarine. Until you get flooding under control, then you don't worry about signaling your success or set an anchor. If the damage from gunfire from the Housatonic was severe enough to sink the Hunley they were certainly doing a lot of things that says that they weren't worried about that damaged porthole.

My personal opinion, and that is all anybody has, is that they did not recieve any damage from the Housatonic or any other vessel coming to the Housatonic's rescue. That they found that they could not return to harbor because the tide was against them and the tide race was pushing them farther out to sea. They set the anchor you mentioned and settled to the bottom to await the tide shift. That was something they had practised during their training. They went to sleep there in the dark due to the exhaustion of the mission and simple used up their oxygen supply in the boat and died of lack of oxygen while asleep. The concussion from the reported depth charge attack during WW II breaks out the porthole and the Hunley fills with the sediment which had entombed it over the years.

Nothing more complicated or dramatic than that. Just a simple mistake on the part of the crew of not maintaining someone on watch, or of the watch falling asleep on duty.

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