An Underwater Accident

When the Housatonic sank the first ship to respond to its call for help was the USS Canandaigua. Some suggest that the Hunley and the Canandaigua may have crashed because of this. This would not affect the Canandaigua but it certainly would have sealed the Hunley’s fate.

Hitting The Bullseye

The “lucky shot” theory suggests that Dixon could have left one port open to be able to see the enemy ship. This may have given one of the Housatonic’s sailors the chance to kill him and without a captain to lead them and with water filling up the submarine they were unable to go home. However, no bullets were found in the ship and so it is unlikely that Dixon was shot.