In The Waves: The Mystery of the HL Hunley

The diminutive, hand-powered HL Hunley was the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship in combat, the USS Housatonic in Charleston harbour on 17 February 1864. The little Confederate submarine disappeared immediately after its historic victory, leaving behind only a few muddled eyewitness reports and not a single physical clue to the cause of its own demise. It was recovered from beneath the ocean floor decades later, in the year 2000, but the puzzle of its disappearance only deepened when the hull was opened to reveal that the remains of the crew were still seated peacefully at their battle stations, and seemed to be unharmed.

While a PhD student at Duke University, blast and ballistic trauma researcher Rachel Lance read about the mysterious crew deaths and decided to investigate. To her, the most likely suspect was the massive black powder bomb that the men set off only a few…