Eclipse Trip -- H. L. Hunley Tour

Panic! Panic!  The Eclipse is coming!  Our next stop was Charleston, South Carolina.  Charleston was one of the few major cities on the east coast in the path of totality.  The state of South Carolina was expecting several million tourists for the event.  I don't know how many were expected in Charleston, but I know there was great fear among city officials there would be problems due to the crowds.

Although still 95 miles from Charleston according to the sign at the right, this was only one of many such warning signs we had already seen as we drove down the interstate.

It is true that hotel rooms were nearly unavailable when we booked a room at a Motel 6 back in June.  No, it was not necessarily our first choice for a motel, but it was one of the last motels with available rooms that did not cost an arm and a leg.  I saw one report after the fact that Charleston's hotels/motels had between 97 and 100% occupancy over the eclipse weekend.  I know our motel appeared full...probably why they seemed to be rationing towels!?

Of course, the big concern was the potential for massive traffic jams.  Getting around in Charleston was extremely slow.  After all, the central city is a set of closely packed neighborhoods on a peninsula between two rivers, with surrounding areas spread out beyond the rivers.  The traffic has to funnel across the few bridges that cross the rivers.  However, the only truly major traffic jams we saw while in town were either the closed lanes due to kids moving into the dorms at the University of Charleston or the long lines to get Krispy Kreme's limited edition eclipse doughnuts. 

But I am getting ahead of myself.  It is only a three hour drive between Augusta and Charleston.  Even with our explorations around Augusta on Saturday morning, we knew we would have plenty of time to do something else before arriving at the hotel. With that in mind, we went directly to see the H. L. Hunley exhibit.

H. L. Hunley.   On February 17th, 1864, the experimental submarine H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor, thus becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel in battle. After completing her mission, she and here eight crew members vanished and remained lost at sea.  Despite many searches over the decades, it was not until 1995 that the Hunley was found by the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), led by New York Times-bestselling author and underwater explorer Clive Cussler.

Life size depiction of the Hunley

The recovery was a huge and complicated engineering challenge.   Weight distribution throughout the recovery process would have to be consistent along the entire 40 foot length of the 20 ton vessel.  Otherwise it could break apart and be destroyed, a frequent occurrence in the recovery of marine artifacts.  The task was further complicated since the Hunley was submerged in 30 feet of murky, choppy ocean waters.  Nor was the structural integrity of the ship guaranteed, since the iron vessel had been corroding in salt water for over a century.

The Hunley was successfully recovered on August 8, 2000, but that was only the beginning. She was transported to the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston.  The Hunley was immediately placed in a large, 75,000-gallon steel tank filled with chilled, fresh water.  Since then a delicate and extremely complicated scientific process, much of it unprecedented and thus experimental, has unfolded to excavate and conserve the submarine.  To say that this process is slow and painstaking is an understatement.  The restoration is still ongoing, but here are just a few of the dates on the restoration timeline:

• August 8, 2000 - The Hunley is raised from the sea

• February 16, 2001 - Three hull plates are removed.  The interior of the Hunley was opened for the first time in 137 years.
   

• April 10, 2001 - Some personal items belonging to the crew emerged, including a shoe, buttons, a pencil, and a pipe. The wooden pipe still had tobacco in the bowl. 

•  April 13, 2001 - The first skull was recovered.  Ultimately the team would locate the full remains of the eight crew members that perished on the submarine.
   

• January 29, 2005 --The crew bench was removed from the submarine for conservation treatment. 

•  June 23, 2011 - The Hunley was rotated to an upright position after resting on her side for over a century.

•  May 1, 2014 -The Hunley is submerged for the first time in a bath of sodium hydroxide designed to conserve the iron structure.  This process is expected to last 5 – 7 years.

• August 2014 to September 2015 - Exterior Deconcretion. The Hunley was encased in a layer of sand, sediment, rust and silt that built up overtime while lost at sea.  The team delicately removed this material and exposed the original surface of the Hunley.

•  2016 - Deconcretion of the Interior of the Hunley.  Once concretion covering the outside was removed, conservators started working inside the crew compartment.

The restoration process only takes place Monday through  Friday, allowing for tours by the public on the weekends, hence our rush to get there on Saturday afternoon in hopes of getting tickets.  Yes, we got tickets.  Yes we got to see the Hunley sitting in a bath of sodium hydroxide.

Aft portion of the Hunley in the large bath of sodium hydroxide, as seen from the observation platform above.

Front of Hunley submerged in the sodium hydroxide bath as seen from the observation deck above.

The submarine was powered by the seven crew members turning a crank assembly that extended the length of the vessel.  The eighth crew member was the captain, who steered the ship.

The Frog turning the crank inside a mockup of the Hunley

 

The Frog inside the mockup of the Hunley

Mystery of the Hunley's disappearance.  Of course, none of this addresses directly what caused the Hunley to sink.  There have been numerous theories.  Most noteable theories include crippling of the ship or disabling of the crew by the explosion of the Hunley's own torpedo, miscalculation of the oxygen required and subsequent asphyxiation, collision with one of the vessels rushing to the aid of the Housatonic, or even a lucky shot by a Union soldier through one of the glass view ports on the Hunley.

Interestingly, a paper by a group of Duke University engineers recently appeared in print that claims to solve the mystery.  By the way, the paper was published on August 23, which was after we viewed the Hunley exhibit but before we arrived home.  (Thank you Google for making it pop up on my Google page while driving home!)  Original research article.  CNN synopsis of the research.

Although referred to as a "torpedo", the weapon that sank the Housatonic was a 135 pound black powder charge with pressure-sensitive trigger mounted to the front of the Hunley on a 16 foot spar.

Although the Hunley survived the blast, it was not understood at the time how shockwaves moved through water vs air and how such a shockwave impacted soft tissue in humans.  The researchers concluded that the explosion was so close the crew members were disabled and/or killed instantly by the shockwave from the blast.

Physics Alums "Reunion".  As you can probably tell, I was really intrigued by this entire project and the miraculous progress they had made at restoring the ship and its contents.  However, we still had to navigate our way to the motel and then hook up with the Frog's former buddies from the Physics Department at Denison.  Thanks to the wonders of social media, we discovered they were at the Bay Street Biergarten.  Thanks to the wonders of gps, we found our way there.  What fun we had in meeting up with these wonderful folks after all of these years!!! 

DU physics alumni and friends at the Bay Street Biergarten. Stephanie, Glenn, Diane, Doug, Dave, Frog, and Turkey.