Tourists at North Charleston's Warren Lasch Conservation Center
get a sense of what sailors faced on the H.L. Hunley,a
Confederate submarine that became the first to sink an enemy
ship in battle in 1864. (Gannett, Laura Bly/USA TODAY) Cathy
Payne, USA TODAY A torpedo casing may hold a key clue as to why
the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank during the Civil War,
scientists say. The new evidence suggests that the Hunley
positioned itself much closer to its target -- the Union ship
the USS Housatonic on Feb. 17, 1864 -- than previously believed.
The Hunley torpedo sank the Housatonic, becoming the world's
first successful combat submarine. But after signaling to
comrades on Sullivan's Island that the mission was accomplished,
the Hunley and its eight-member crew vanished. Conventional
wisdom has held that the hand-cranked Hunley used a spar, or
large pole, to ram a torpedo into the Housatonic's hull and then
pulled away. It was further believed that once at a safe
distance, the Hunley detonated the torpedo