The less recent rendering below includes information from the Smithsonian Seminar, National Geographic magazine, and the updated Friends web site.  The bar in the center of the shelf was identified at that time as part of the hatch latching mechanism, described by Maria Jacobsen as a vertical bolt and crossbar.  She reported that it was not possible to look out the portholes with the latch engaged, if the mechanism was similar to that in the aft hatch.  I assumed the vertical bar is hinged at the top to swing up into the hatchway.

     More recently, I considered the operation of the compass more carefully.  Some have speculated the compass was practically useless in the the Hunley's iron hull.  I believe Dixon would not have had it on board if it didn't work.  The box itself is too large for Dixon to have stood in the open hatch and used it outside of the hull.  The hatchway is just too narrow to easily lift it outside.  Therefore I believe it must have worked where it was found.  When iron ships came into wide use in the mid 1800s, techniques for correcting compasses were developed that are still used.  The compass is mounted in a binnacle with a soft iron ball on each side, a vertical, soft iron, so-called "Flinders' bar" and magnets oriented in two directions inside.  If the vertical bar in the rendering below is not part of the latch, perhaps it serves as a Flinders' bar.  There's no obvious sign of the balls, but the compass box itself could contain compensating magnets.

     The forward seacock occupies the position opposite the compass box.  The small valve on the hull above the seacock inlet pipe is the connection for the depth gauge.  (This rendering is out-of-date in the depiction, size, and location of this gauge.  See the main reconstruction page for more accurate images.)  The gauge, which was much larger than I've shown here, fit into a cutout in the center of far shelf edge (against the bulkhead) and was nearly the full height of the bulkhead.  In late 2007 Brian Hicks in a Post and Courier article on conservation revealed that the shelf was not permanently attached to the hull, but held in place by wood wedges.   It may be an illusion of perspective, but in photos the shelf appears to slope slightly down toward the bulkhead.  If true, this may have been a practical way to keep items on the shelf from sliding off as the the Hunley moved in the sea.   Photos show a rough, rounded notch in the starboard edge of the shelf.  Brian indicated this notch is probably the result of rot that took place after the sinking. 

The Friends have indicated that the bench fit neatly on the plumbing.  Unfortunately, none of the published photos show that area clearly.  If the small notch was cut to accommodate some feature, it's not obvious what that feature was.  The rendering at right shows one possibility.  That below shows another.

Most illustrations of the commander's station, including mine, show him sitting facing forward.  This is consistent with the dive plane control positioned on the port side and the tiller moving left and right across the front of the station.  With his bench set on the outlet piping on the starboard side of the cabin, we need to consider the possibility that he sat facing sideways as some recent reenactment video shows.  The rendering at right demonstrates that someone of Dixon's size could have sat sideways in the forward section without the forward hatch latch in place.  He would have had to lean forward and maybe twist a little to look forward, but there appears to be plenty of room.

The only difficulties I see are the rather clumsy arm and hand positions.  The commander would have to reach forward and perhaps across his body to grasp the dive plane lever.  The counterweight may have been added to the dive lever to facilitate its operation.  Control would require little effort if there was a detent in the mechanism to hold it in the neutral position but allow free movement otherwise.

Operating the tiller would be even clumsier, since his elbow would quickly hit the cabin wall behind him when he moved the control to starboard, although moving to port would be easy and natural.        None of these control operations would be impossible, but perhaps a little uncomfortable.

I think the height of the bench atop the pump outlet pipe makes it unlikely that the commander used it in this position when the the latch was fastened.  He would have had to bend forward at a very uncomfortable angle and even then with any movement the bottom of the latch might hit him in the neck.  Perhaps he moved the bench to the cabin floor and sat there at those times.  It could be that the notch mentioned above accommodates a feature in the piping or steering linkage on the floor.

On the other hand any substantial movement would affect the trim of the boat, so perhaps his position was something between facing forward and to the side and he leaned forward when the latch was in place.

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8 Nov 08