Fast flooding
The Friends of Hunley, in a statement released on January 14, 2019, elaborated on this new theory. They suggested that if the pipe had broken during the Hunley’s historic mission, it could have played a crucial role in the submarine’s sinking and the subsequent loss of the crew. Researchers calculated that as little as 50 gallons of water entering the vessel could have been sufficient to cause it to sink.
Alarmingly, such a quantity of water could have entered through the gap left by the broken pipe in just a matter of minutes, a scenario that painted a grim picture of the crew’s final moments.