One suggested Student Activity from Topic 1- Building the Hunley
2. Using the picture of the Hunley on page 9 in your book, locate
and label the parts of the Hunley on the diagram of the submarine for this
topic. Use the reading selection and the information on pages 77 and
78 about the parts of the Hunley to help you. Explain briefly what
each part does in operating the boat.
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Part of one suggested Student Activity from Topic 2- Diving with the Hunley
2. Exercise - examine the size of the Hunley. Do the following:
If we could have really made a dive with the Hunley we would see
how tiny it was. Let’s draw parts of the Hunley their full size and
look at them. These dimensions are based on those of the actual submarine
that has been recovered.
a. Length - The overall length of
the Hunley, not counting the torpedo boom, was thought to be about 40 feet
as shown on the attached sketch. This has been verified on the real
submarine. Go into the school yard and measure off the distance.
Clearly mark off a starting point on the ground. From this point, measure
off the distance of 40 feet using a tape measure, folding ruler or yard stick.
Clearly mark the second point and then draw a straight line to the other
end back at the starting point. (This can also be done inside if provisions
are made to protect the floor.)
b. Room for crew - Each end of the submarine had about
7 feet and 6 inches taken up by the ballast tanks. From your mark
on each end, measure off 7feet and 6 inches and mark these points.
Now, the space between your two inside lines is about the room that all
of the eight crew members had to live and work in. Have eight members
of your class stand on the line between the inside marks. Imagine
how eight adults could sit or stand in this small area for hours at a time
and turn the crank to make the boat move. Would you have liked to
work in this small area in the dark when it was very hot and there was not
enough air?
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Portion of Student Reading Activity from Topic 3- Disaster and Misfortune
Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
One very great danger that the crew of the Hunley faced was that they would use up all the oxygen when the boat was submerged under the water. Humans must have oxygen in the air they breathe in order to live. Oxygen is a colorless, odorless gas. Only about 21% of the air we breathe on the surface is composed of oxygen. The remainder is mostly nitrogen gas with small traces of other gases.
Humans breathe in the oxygen and their bodies convert it into carbon dioxide which is exhaled in to the atmosphere. In a closed space, like the submarine, the oxygen in the air will eventually be converted into carbon dioxide by the men’s breathing. As the oxygen level in the air falls, the men’s ability to think and work will be seriously affected. When the oxygen level falls further the men will become unconscious and then die as the oxygen is used up. This is called suffocation or asphyxiation.
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Portion of suggested math problem from Student Activity from Topic 4 - Practicing for the Attack
3. In the story, Mr. Alexander states that the Hunley could make about 4 miles per hour when the conditions were right. This is not very fast, it is about the speed that an adult can walk. Do the following problems:
a. What is the speed of 4 miles per hour converted into a speed of feet per minute? (One mile is equal to 5,280 feet.)
b. How fast do you walk? Have ten class mates individually walk at a fast rate for one minute. Measure each distance and make a bar graph of the results. Compute the average distance covered. Convert this distance in feet per minute into miles per hour. Does your class average speed beat the Hunley?
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One suggested Student Activity from Topic 5 - The Housatonic
3. Do research to find out more about the USS Housatonic. Write
your findings in to a report. You may use the Glossary on pages 74
through 79 of your book for some of the information.
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Portion of one suggested Student Activity from Topic 6 - The Lost Submarine is Found
1. The story of the Hunley has been thoroughly covered by the Charleston
newspaper the Post and Courier. The newspaper has an excellent internet
site.
Use Newspaper Archives
Part of this internet site is an Archives area.
The Archives section gives you the ability to search through articles that
have been in the Post and Courier over the last several years. This
is an invaluable tool for anyone researching the story of the Hunley’s discovery,
recovery and restoration.
The Charleston.Net archive feature can be reached by
logging on to the site:
(http://www.charleston.net/)
Select “Archives” in the list along the bottom of the
page. In the archives you will be able to search for a particular subject,
or name, in the year or years when it might have in the newspaper.
The search will tell you if an article contains the word that you are searching
for. (The newspaper requires that you register in order to use the
“Archive Feature” but this is a simple operation and well worth the effort.)
Use the “Archive” feature of Charleston.Net to find
the articles about the following subjects. Write down the number of
stories found for each subject and read several:
Any articles about Clive Cussler in 1995
Any articles about the Hunley Commission in 1996 and 2000
Any articles about the Housatonic in 1995
Any articles about the Hunley in 2003
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Portion of Student Reading Activity from Topic 7 - The Hunley is Recovered
Recovery Begins
The actual recovery operation began on Saturday, May 13 when the 180-foot-long work boat Marks Tide left its mooring at the former Charleston Navy Base and went to the Hunley wreck site, 4 1/2 miles off Sullivan's Island. It carried divers, archaeologists and engineers.
Hunley Commission Chairman, Glenn McConnell, announced that The National Geographic Society had agreed to make a documentary of the recovery, including filming the difficult underwater segments. NGS will pay $200,000 toward the recovery costs for the film rights.
Divers from the Marks Tide quickly began the task of vacuuming the sand from around the Hunley. They soon found small pieces of wood and coal buried near the sub that project archeologists say may have come from the Hunley's victim, the USS Housatonic. The two conning towers on the sub were among the first parts of the sub to be exposed by the vacuuming.
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