Greetings,
I just finished an interesting book entitled The H.L. Hunley: the Secret Hope of the Confederacy, by Tom Chaffin. While the book was more an historical document relating the story of the sub's genesis and the people involved, it did present some technical information which has raised a question in my mind. The author noted in the text and in a line drawing that the Hunley's ballast tanks vented into the boat thru a gap at the top of the ballast tanks' bulkhead. My question is "how do you get the ballast water to flow into the tank if they vent inside the sub?" Wouldn't you need to allow the air to escape to the atmosphere for the tanks to fill? What am I missing here?
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