Milsurp After Hours

..........crew accidentally killed themselves.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017 ... identally/

Interesting. The Hunley was created in Mobile and several crews had died in the experimental stage. Still they had volunteers until the life of the sub was ended in Charleston.

So you put 135 pounds of gunpowder on the end of a 16' pole, which obviously means it is only 16'
from the bow of your submarine, and set it off...... What could possibly go wrong......

.

The idea was that the spar would stick in the target, harpoonlike and the sub would back away to a safe distance before the charge detonated. Either the spar didn't disengage as planned or the charge detonated prematurely.

Mobile was the Area 51 for submarine design during the ACW. There were several designs besides the Hunley. There is some evidence that the Tecumseh was sunk by a submarine rather than a mine. The submarine was sunk with the loss of all hands except the CO who lost both legs. A single line in a book he wrote after the war suggests the submarine action at Mobile Bay. There is very little surviving original documentation of the Confederacy's submarine program. Several subs were scuttled near the end of the war and their location deliberately obscured. Those involved in the sub programs did not write about their experiences. They feared prosecution as war criminals because submarines were thought of as "infernal devices" outside the accepted practices of warfare.
The information about Mobile comes from a lecture given by CAPT Mark McDonagh at Dragon Con in Sept 2016.

http://www.dragoncon.org/?q=guest_details_page/858