I lived, as a child, on the island near where the Hunley sank.
In 2000, we sat on the beach and watched them lift it out of the water with binoculars.
It was odd, then. But now I’m grateful for the chance to have seen it. A beach which is now one of the top vacation destinations in the US was once a good spot to watch the first submarine sink.
That's pretty neat! The Hunley was built in my hometown. There is a nice replica someone still nearby. It's been shifted around from the backyard of one museum to the next over the years. At some point I'll have to go see the real thing I suppose.
>His “Little Exterminator” operated through a delicate watch mechanism that moved a tiny saw, releasing a chemical that smelled like cayenne pepper, killing anyone within one hundred feet.
A 100 foot lethal radius sounds utterly unbelievable, especially in the 1800s. What could this be? Where did he procure it, how did he work with it? How did they know it smelled like cayenne if it was so incredibly potent? Come to think of it, how was the (suspiciously round) number derived? Did this guy carry this impossibly deadly contraption around, or was it perhaps on a shelf in his shop to be knocked over by a careless punter? How did the other shops on the street feel about this?
No, I call bullshit. This is uncritically repeated advertising copy made up by a known conman who made money selling weapons to terrorists. Dollars to donuts he pulled a Doc Brown and his "Little Exterminator" was nothing of the kind.
In 2000, we sat on the beach and watched them lift it out of the water with binoculars.
It was odd, then. But now I’m grateful for the chance to have seen it. A beach which is now one of the top vacation destinations in the US was once a good spot to watch the first submarine sink.
It was odd, then, too.