The Hunley

On 17 February 1864 the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley rammed a spar torpedo into USS Housatonic in Charleston harbour and became the first submarine in history to sink a warship. Then she vanished with all eight hands. She had already drowned two previous crews in trials, thirteen men, including her financier Horace Hunley. She was found in 1995, raised in 2000, and is being conserved in a tank in North Charleston where you can see her. Why she sank is still argued; the leading answer is that the blast wave killed the crew at their stations.