Iron pieces a clue to loss of sub

It's not as flashy as a gold coin, not as mysterious as a Yankee dog tag. But a two-inch shard of iron found in the bottom of the H.L. Hunley may turn out to be the artifact that solves the sub's greatest riddle.

Since the Civil War submarine was raised from the Atlantic seven years ago, many folks have looked to the grapefruit-sized hole in its front conning tower as the answer to why the vessel sank.

Scientists always said that if they found pieces of the cast-iron tower inside the sub, the find might go a long way toward solving the mystery.

Now it looks like they've found just that.

While clearing out the sub's hull for the conservation process scheduled to start next year, scientists discovered about five pieces of cast iron, some no bigger than a quarter.

Very little of the Hunley is made of cast iron — the conning towers and caps on the bow and stern, basically. These newly discovered pieces were found directly below the forward tower, the one with the hole in it.

"There's a very good probability it is from the tower because of the distinct shape," says Maria Jacobsen, senior archaeologist on the Hunley project. "But it's where it's found that is exciting."

The iron pieces, at least one of which has the same curving shape as the tower, were found beneath the sediment that filled the front part of the sub within months after it sank.

The meaning of this is a subtle, but vital, clue to understanding what happened to the submarine after it sank the Housatonic.

Because the iron was found beneath the sediment, basically on the bottom of the hull, it had to fall into the sub before sediment got into the Hunley. And scientists are almost sure sediment filled that part of the sub within months after the vessel disappeared. They know this because there's a great deal of evidence that Lt. George Dixon, the sub's captain, was at least partially covered with sediment before his body decomposed.

Although the discovery of the cast iron pieces is "one of the top ten clues" to the Hunley's disappearance, this discovery by itself only points scientists in a single direction. It also re-kindles the theory that the sub sank because a "lucky shot" from a Yankee sailor made a hole in the sub that caused it to fill with water.

"In some ways, this takes us back to the early days and the blown-out eyepiece theory," says Sen. Glenn McConnell, chairman of the Hunley Commission.

That theory goes like this: Sailors onboard the USS Housatonic spotted the Hunley just before it sank their ship on Feb. 17, 1864. Several of them opened fire, shooting at the view ports that glowed from interior candlelight.

Although the Hunley was spotted 45 minutes later by Housatonic survivors, the hole in the conning tower has led some to believe at least one Union sailor hit his mark.

The discovery of this iron doesn't narrow the time frame to a single night but, along with the sediment, it suggests that hole in the Hunley was made sometime between the attack and a few months after the sub's disappearance.

Jacobsen said a couple of tests on the metal will verify whether it is actually from the conning tower, but they may not know for sure until they remove the concrete-hard coating of sand and shell stuck to the sub's hull over the next year. Then they'll know better how, or if, the pieces fit it.

Contact Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com