I applaud the bravery of these men. Doing something that had never been done in battle.

I was in Charleston at the Hunley exhibit on August 20th 2017 and after seeing how short the spar was, I said out loud that there was no way these men could have survived the blast in that steel drum/coffin.

Read her book "In the Waves." It's wonderful, a mixture of science, history, and humor.

You're evidence is sound, I didn't think of this before but the Hunley and other events are the reason we started shooting torpedoes from a great distance rather than delivering them personally. It was around this time propelled torpedoes were being developed in England. Also a 16 ft spar was very short, other vessels employing the same spar torpedo weaponry had 30 ft spars and didn't survive. It was in 1877 that a Romanian spar torpedo boat was the first instance in history when a torpedo craft sank its targets without also sinking. All other attempts had always failed in death.

Witness reports say they saw the hunley surface and signal the shore

I read the article in the Smithsonian Magazine, and wondered how long the spar would have been to avoid death of the crew. Also, the article said you tested a 1/6 th scale CSS Tiny however the blast travels at 1/1 scale speed. Was that taken into account?While I don't doubt the crew died from the shockwave, I wonder if the original sub's designer didn't take that into account. I did enjoy the article. Thank you.

Well done this was the first theory I could agree with ,let dixon had done several tests to determine how long they could stay under water and endure the co2 exposure, which ended up being about 2 hrs a 1hr an half after there candle went out due to lack of oxygen. Any of us can have a theory but she has the science that backs hers up ,would love to sit and talk to her about her findings and reserch.

in 2012 there was a discovery that the Hunley didn't release it's torpedo before it detonated. "WLCC conservator Paul Mardikian found that a portion of the torpedo’s copper sheathing was still bolted in place. This contradicted contemporary accounts, which had suggested that the submarine had somehow affixed the torpedo to Housatonic’s hull and then backed off before detonating it. Now researchers knew the exact distance the submarine was from the explosion - a mere 16 feet." (Quote from the naval history and Heritage Command www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/hl-hunley/hunley-incident-analysis.html) This is the reason why this shock wave theory is so viable. What adds to the shock wave is that there was 135 pounds of black powder instead of 90 as first reported. Also i wonder if the hull of the Housatonic sent an echo of the shock wave adding to the soft tissue destruction.

The Navy already ran these tests with a great deal more information, computer modeling and manpower, they discarded the possibility that the black powder charge wounded the crew with anything more than, and I quote "bumps and bruises."

Best theory yet.

Is it reasonable that people sophisticated enough to build Hunley would completely miscalculate how the blast would affect the Hunley crew? Seems unlikely. There was a mechanism that seemed to indicate that Hunley was designed to back off before triggering the torpedoe.

The force of the explosion radiated inside the sub and causing internal trauma to the ear and hollow areas inside the body.

If I understand correctly, modern torpedoes function by using the shockwave of the blast to damage their targets, rather than simply blowing holes in hulls. Sound like the same thing could have happened here.

It seems unlikely that they were shot down by their own weapon, because they did already that as an experiment in the bay of Charleston. They sank an old vessel. At this moment they were not damage by the explosion. And for the Housatonic they had a long line to fire the torpedo. They had the possibility to run out at safe distance before detonating the torpedo hooked in the planking of the boat.

Do we think this contingency just didn't occur to the designers? Were there no tests? Obviously they don't have our benefit of hindsight, but it seems like warfare engineers would've been familiar with some aspects of concussive forces from explosions.

The ship had a 90 ft spool of cord as a lanyard for the charge. It didnt go off that close.

The navy has since written a report discrediting Doctor Lance’s conclusions.

if all of the crew was killed by the blast then how can you explain way someone on land saw a green light shortly after the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic?

I thought they suffocated from lack of oxygen

The crew of the Hunley didn't die from concussive effects.

I don't believe it. Only out of experience. A lot larger explosives have gone off within 10 feet of Humvees over seas and literally sent the vehicle 50 feet off the road and only lost a single soldier. I mean 20× more powerful than the Hunley bomb and without water to absorb the shock. It would have rocked them for sure. But it'll take a lot more than that to kill a human being. If anything it would have killed the lead man and everyone else would struggle for hours upon hours to steer somehow with a dead body in the way and one less person to generate power. They took a lot longer than expected because of this and died from asphyxiation. Which is why they're only a hundred yards from shore and not 5 miles away where the bomb went off.

smart lady like the one's in my life

I'm not sure i agree with that.

duke should not be allowed near the hunley!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The problem with this theory is they surfaced and signaled to shore forces that they had completed their mission and were returning to port, more likely they suffocated

blast wave injuries are caused by air pressure the subs hull would have been displaced to cause this your tiny sub is much too small to make this conclusion it is more likley they died from carbon monoxide exposure

Confederate Sailors Was War Hero God Bless Their Soul 🇺🇸💪🏻⚓️🪖👨🏼‍🎓🤘🏻

Easy instant death then a hot female chick goes through your bones 100 years later measuring sizes - not the worst way to die. I wish my wife was into submarines and explosions, ah, we could talk to hours about fatal blast traumas...

Well how bout that, strapping a keg of explosives to the front of your submarine and ramming it into a ship is bad for you... #themoreyouknow

Should have hired a man to narrate this~