New clues to sinking of Confederate sub

The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sits in a conservation tank after a steel truss that had surrounded it was removed in this Jan. 12, 2012 file photo taken at a conservation lab in North Charleston, S.C. / AP Photo/Bruce Smith

Last Updated 12:05 p.m. ET

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. Scientists say the submarine that was the first in history to sink an enemy warship was much closer than thought to a Union ship it sank in 1864.

Scientists announced Monday that 135 pounds of gunpowder was attached to a pole, or spar, at the front of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.

It has been long thought the Hunley attached a torpedo to the bottom of the blockade ship Housatonic and then backed off. But new evidence indicates the Hunley was only about 20 feet away, meaning the concussion from the explosion could have knocked out the crew.

The Housatonic sank, while the Hunley, built in Mobile, Ala., never returned with its eight-man crew.

In this Aug. 3, 2010 file photo, the spar of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is displayed at the sub's conservation lab in North Charleston, S.C. , where the hand-cranked sub is being preserved and studied.

/ AP Photo/Bruce Smith

The sub was found off South Carolina in 1995 and raised five years later.

The findings were revealed Monday at a North Charleston lab where the hand-cranked sub is being preserved and studied.

• Restoring a piece of S.C.'s Civil War history
• World gets better view of Civil War submarine
• 10 years on, mystery of Confederate sub remains
• Raising a Civil War Submarine
• Funeral for a Civil War Sub Crew

[moshe05]

it is fitting to see this piece of confederate machinery up on concrete blocks. well, if the blocks aren't concrete, they should be.

[fragilehabitat]

The National Underwater and Marine Agency. It was founded by Dr. Clive Cussler in 1979. It is dedicated to locating and preserving underwater ship wrecks. It is clearly stated by their publication, The Sea Hunters C 1996 by Clif Clussler and Craig Dirgo, that the sub stuck its payload into the side of the union ship and tried to back off but it did not disloge and it exploded. It did not damage the Sub but in its escape route, it was ran over by a fleeing union ship trying to get out of the bay.