Scientists probe time watch stopped

=========================== 'It is entirely possible that the Hunley's crew compartment remained watertight long after the oxygen the crew needed to survive was gone.'

State Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston | chairman of the S.C. Hunley Commission

CHARLESTON - It was 8:49 when the gold pocket watch belonging to the commander of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley stopped. That would be about the time the sub sank a Union blockade ship off the S.C. coast, researchers said Thursday.

But nothing is certain about how the hand-cranked Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship, was sunk the night of Feb. 17, 1864.

It's not clear if the time on Lt. George Dixon's watch is morning or evening and whether it stopped because of water flooding the sub or because it simply wound down.

Today marks the third anniversary of the raising of the submarine from the ocean floor off Charleston. The Hunley is at a conservation lab at the former Charleston Navy Base.

When Dixon's watch was opened earlier this year, scientists found a broken hour hand - believed to be pointing somewhere between 6 and 9 - a minute hand pointing to 22 and a second hand pointing to 20.

Scientists now say the watch showed 8:23. Accounts from Union observers put the time of the Hunley attack on the blockade ship Housatonic at 8:45 p.m.

However, the Confederates used local apparent solar time and the Union Navy local mean solar time in setting watches and clocks. Calculating the differences, Dixon's watch would read 8:49 Union time.

That might indicate the Hunley flooded shortly after ramming a spar with a powder charge into the hull of the Union blockade ship Housatonic.

But Warren Lasch, chairman of Friends of the Hunley, says such a conclusion would be premature. He said scientists still have to examine the workings of the watch.

"An important clue we will soon discover is whether or not the watch was completely wound down," he said. "We still don't know if the time is a.m. or p.m. or even the same day."

State Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston and chairman of the S.C. Hunley Commission, said scientific evidence indicates the Hunley filled slowly with water.

"It is entirely possible that the Hunley's crew compartment remained watertight long after the oxygen the crew needed to survive was gone," he said. "If the watch was protected from the invasion of water, then it would have continued to tick until it eventually wound down."

As many as 10,000 people, including Civil War re-enactors both blue and gray, will march in next year's funeral procession for the eight crewmen.