These tools helped keep submarine Hunley running -- whether on the surface or underwater. The gizmos are now on exhibit at conservation lab near Charleston

Conserved glass bottle, wrench and hammer carried by sub crew (Friends of the Hunley)

In-depth research and tinkering went into the design and construction of the stealthy submarine H.L. Hunley. While there were predecessors, the Confederate vessel was the first to be an effective weapon, sinking a Union ship off Charleston Harbor.

“We think it was very watertight. The construction was very sound, according to the riveting,” said Nick DeLong, among the Clemson University archaeologists conserving the Hunley at a lab in North Charleston, S.C.The rivets were inverted, creating a smooth exterior and reducing drag in the water.

“They knew a lot more about hydrodynamics than people thought,” DeLong told the Picket on Thursday as the Friends of the Hunley announced “Tools & Tides,” a new exhibit at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center.

The submarine had a rather complex system of drawing, pumping and discharging water, so the moving parts required regular maintenance. The Hunley was a “work in progress” that required the crew to keep it seaworthy with common tools. Adding to the challenge was a tiny environment that featured limited lighting and likely condensation from water, sweat and breathing.

The small exhibit, timed to the anniversary of the Feb. 17, 1864, sinking of the USS Housatonic, features tools that would be useful for quick repairs. The display (left) includes bolts, a wrench, chisel and hammer -- items you would find in a Home Depot, for example, but took years of conservation to be made ready for their debut.

The exhibit opens to the public this weekend.

“It was a very basic tool set to help (with) anything on the fly,” said DeLong. “While the submarine was revolutionary, they had to use what they knew to solve problems they could not foresee.”

The eight-man crew perished after the Hunley went down after jamming a torpedo into the Housatonic’s wooden hull. To this day, historians and others disagree on what caused the loss of the Hunley shortly after it became the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel.

It’s tempting to engage in conjecture on how the artifacts could have been used to save the ship. For example, if there was a problem with the ballast tank, perhaps the wrench or a T-shaped tool would have been helpful in making a repair, allowing the Hunley to rise to the surface. But we just don’t know what failed.

Here’s a look at the recently conserved items in the new exhibit, with all photos and most of the captions provided by the Friends of the Hunley. Several tools were discovered beneath Capt. George Dixon’s bench. DeLong said the artifacts likely did not shift much when the Hunley went to the bottom. This is the first time they have been put on exhibit.

Glass bottle

The 12-sided glass apothecary bottle was found on the crew bench still holding liquid from 1864 (The hand-cranked submarine was recovered in 2000 and has proved to be a time capsule holding precious artifacts).

The contents of the bottle remained a mystery until testing revealed it was mercury, which was most likely used for the submarine’s depth gauge. DeLong says the remaining fluid in the container matches the amount of mercury needed to operate the gauge.

T-shaped tool

(Friends of the Hunley)

The artifact was found between the pump mechanism and the frame ring, suggesting it was used to adjust or remove portions of the forward ballast pump. The Hunley had a forward and aft pump, with the crew department in between, DeLong told the Picket.

“They (the pumps) were quite effective. They were connected through piping so if one failed the other would pump water.” The crew opened a valve that would allow water in, making the Hunley descend. The pumps pushed water out so that it could rise to the surface.

Chisel

This wrought-iron tool was uncovered next to the forward bulkhead. It was stuck to the hull and bilge pump pipe due to heavy concretion. It has a flat-blade edge and would have been used for general utilitarian tasks.

Bolts/wedges

The tools served as flat-head wedges, according to DeLong. They were used to hold some of the submarine’s frame rings.

The bolts, with an attached nut, were found beneath the forward pump outflow pipe under the captain seat and could have been integral components in the ballast and pump system's operation.

They were treated using a sub-critical chamber, a cutting-edge conservation technique developed by the Hunley scientific team, officials said in a press release. 

Ball-peen hammer

Clemson conservator Johanna Rivera cleans hammer (Friends of the Hunley)

Made of different materials, the ball-peen hammer required different conservation methods. For example, the treatment used for the iron can be detrimental for the wood handle. The Clemson team removed the head of the hammer and placed it in sodium hydroxide. The handle was immersed in polyethylene glycol.

Wrench

This large adjustable monkey wrench underwent desalination in sodium hydroxide and then was rinsed in deionized water and placed in the lab oven to quickly dry. Next, it was cleaned with air abrasion and a special coating was applied to protect the metal from corrosion.

They plan to dive deeper into use of the tools

Chisel, top left, and other items in display case (Friends of the Hunley)

The Clemson archaeologists intend to do a deeper analysis of the use of these tools and their interaction. The T-shaped item may have been a key, but the project does not know how it was used, said DeLong.

“We want to look at the submarine as a functioning artifact,” he said. Among the topics to be studied was the Hunley’s air intake system

DeLong is among those completing a volume on the crew members and their personal belongings.

The Hunley museum is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sundays. The Warren Lasch Conservation Center is at 1250 Supply St. in North Charleston. Tickets for tours can be purchased online here. The cost is $18 for adults and $10 for youth ages 6-12, plus a service charge

Coming full circle with Maj. Clayton

I'll be traveling Saturday to Fort McAllister Historic Park near Savannah, Ga., for a celebration of the recent return of a Confederate flag captured by Union troops there in December 1864. The Picket has written three articles about the subject.

A descendant of Maj. William Z. Clayton will speak at the ceremony.

Clayton, who served during the Civil War with the 1st Minnesota Light Artillery, left instructions for the return of the Emmett Rifles flag to either Atlanta or Savannah.

During my recent visit to Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee for the 150th anniversary of the battle, I made a point of visiting spots where the battery saw its first significant action during the Civil War.

The unit was led there by Prussian-born Capt. Emil Munch, who, like Clayton, was wounded in the fighting.

Early on the morning of April 6, 1862, the unit was forward of the Peach Orchard, in Spain's Field (top photo).

After fierce fighting and a Confederate push, the 1st Minnesota saw heroic action at the Hornet's Nest, in the Union center. Its marker there reads:

ENGAGED FROM EARLY IN THE MORNING, WHEN CAPT. MUNCH WAS WOUNDED AND DISABLED, IN THE FIRST DAY’S BATTLE OF SHILOH, APRIL 6, 1862. THE RIGHT AND LEFT SECTIONS UNDER COMMAND OF 1ST LIEUT. WILLIAM PFAENDER PARTICIPATED IN THE STRUGGLE OF THE “HORNET’S NEST” WHERE THIS MONUMENT STANDS. THE TWO GUNS OF THE CENTER SECTION WERE DISABLED EARLY IN THE DAY, BUT ONE OF THEM TOOK PART IN THE EVENING IN REPELLING THE LAST CHARGE OF THE CONFEDERATES. CAPT. E. MUNCH AND 1ST LIEUT. F. E. PEEBLES WOUNDED; THREE MEN KILLED AND SIX MEN WOUNDED

I believe that Clayton was wounded while Union artillery units attempted to repulse heavy Confederate assaults at the Hornet's Nest. He was a sergeant at Shiloh and was promoted soon after to second lieutenant.

Clayton first suffered a flesh wound in one of his lower legs late in the afternoon. Then came the more serious injury.

“I saw one of my best boys fall and in came a shot and killed my horse and I jumped from him and just as I raised to my feet I received my wound,” he wrote in a letter. The round “paralised” his left leg and he sat against a tree, revolver drawn because he expected to be bayoneted. Clayton witnessed others being shot.

“I looked towards the guns and as I peaked out from the tree a ball struck the tree right in the rainge (sic) of my face but it struck the tree just far enough to glance the ball and carry it by my face knocking the bark into my face. My gunner was with me and jerked me back.”

The Minnesotans, unlike thousands of others in blue, avoided capture at Shiloh. A general wrote that Clayton should be promoted for his service that day.

By nightfall, the exhausted men were back near Pittsburg Landing (above), where they were dug in for the remainder of the battle. With Munch's injury, Clayton commanded the unit for the balance of the war.

By the time he helped capture Fort McAllister, Clayton had seen more than two years of combat since Shiloh, including the Vicksburg, Corinth and Atlanta campaigns.

He would survive the war and life a long life, dying in 1929 at age 94. Clayton carried the Confederate ball in his leg to the grave at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine.

Photo of Clayton grave courtesy of Stephen G. Burrill.

First shot targeted paddleboat?

Civil War history marks April 12, 1861, as the date the war's first shots were fired when Confederates unleashed a torrent of cannon fire on the Union's Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C. Maybe not, Topekan Betty Purcell says. • Article