Truss shrouding Confederate sub Hunley to be removed

CHARLESTON -- The world this week will get a much clearer view of the hand-cranked H.L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine that became the first in history to sink an enemy warship.

Scientists on Thursday will remove a steel truss weighing more than 8 tons that has surrounded the sub since it was raised from the Atlantic off Charleston a dozen years ago.

The truss was used to suspend slings that lifted the sub from the water and onto a barge that brought it to a conservation lab in North Charleston.

Removing the truss will provide a clearer view of the hull and perhaps clues as why the Hunley sank with its eight-man crew in February 1864, after sending the Union blockade vessel Housatonic to the bottom.

The sub was raised from the water in the position it sank, with the hull tilted about 45 degrees. Last June, in an operation that took two days, scientists slowly turned the hull upright. They later removed the slings attached to the truss.

Kellen Correia, the executive director of Friends of the Hunley, said Tuesday that scientists waited to make sure the vessel was absolutely stable before removing the truss from the conservation tank where the sub sits on blocks.

Almost 12 years after the Hunley was raised, it's still not clear why it sank.

Theories are that it could have been damaged by fire or that the crew was knocked out from the concussion from the blast that sank that ship. The 40-foot sub rammed a spar with a black powder charge into the Housatonic.

There is also the thought the Hunley could have been damaged by another Union vessel coming to help the Housatonic.

Studies show the crew died of a lack of oxygen and didn't drown. The remains of the crew, who were buried in 2004 in what was called the last Confederate funeral, were found at their stations and there seemed no rush to the escape hatch.