Richard Launcelot Maury

“ Hardly had Captain Maury arrived in Richmond than his active mind was directed to the problem of protecting the Southern coasts. The South had not a single vessel of war, and but scanty means of making, equipping or manning one; the North had all the old navy fully armed and equipped, with unlimited means for making more. ”

“ A plan for determining by cross bearing when the enemy is in the field of destruction, and for “making connections” among the torpedo wires in a certain way and by which (the concurrence of two operators) becomes necessary for the explosion of anyone or more torpedoes. This plan requires each operator to be so placed, or stationed that a line drawn straight from them to the place of the torpedoes may intersect as nearly as practicable at right angles, and it requires the connections to be such that each operator may put his station in or out of circuit at will. ”

“ When either operator observes an enemy in range with any torpedo he closes his circuit for that torpedo. If the enemy before getting out of this range should enter the range for any torpedo from the other station the operator then closes his circuit and discharges the igniting spark.
Consequently if the range belongs to the same torpedo its explosion takes place. But if not there will be no explosion; hence, here is an artifice by which explosion becomes impossible when the enemy is not within the field of destruction, and sure when she is. ”

“ Boat ahoy! repeating the hail several times very rapidly. We were coming toward them with all speed and I made no answer but cocked both barrels of my gun. The officer of the deck next made his appearance and loudly demanded, ‘What boat is that?’ Being now within forty yards of the ship and with plenty of head way to carry me on, I thought it about time the fight should commence and fired my gun. The officer of the deck fell back mortally wounded (poor fellow) , and I ordered the engine stopped. The next moment the torpedo struck the vessel and exploded. ”

“ A defense in itself equivalent to a well appointed fleet or army, since, as is well known, it served to keep the enemy out of Richmond till the close of the war, and converted them into earnest advocates of its use. General Raines, chief of the Army Torpedo Bureau, had early adopted as the best form of torpedo, the beer barrel filled with powder and fitted with a percussion primer at each end. They were set adrift in pairs down the river by the hundred to be carried by current and tide against the enemy’s ships below. ”

“ Though these torpedoes, owing to the lack in the Confederacy of the proper materials and appliances for their construction and use, were make-shifts, yet so effective had their use become, especially during the last year of the war, that the Secretary of the American Navy, in his annual report of December, 1865, to the President of the United States, thus testifies to their efficiency: "Torpedoes always formidable in harbours and internal waters, have been more destructive to our naval vessels than all other means combined." ”

“ Forts may be protected against assault and your own rifle pits from occupation by an enemy simply by a proper distribution of these new engines of war. They may be planted line within line and one row above another, and so arranged that volcanoes can be sprung at will under the feet of assualting columns. ”

“ The annals of naval warfare record few enterprises which exhibit more strikingly than this of Lieutenant Glassell the highest qualities of a sea officer. At this time there were sixty officers and men on torpedo duty at Charleston alone.
The most remarkable career in all torpedo history was that of a little boat built in Mobile Bay, and operated upon the fleet off Charleston. She was the pioneer of all submarine torpedo boats, as she was the first to achieve success. ”

“ When he thought that those men were worshipping God in sincerity and truth, and, no doubt, thinking themselves in the line of their duty, he could but feel for them when he remembered how soon he might be the means of sending many of them into eternity. ”

“ It was considered uncivilized warfare thus to attack and destroy an unsuspecting enemy and the United States, and many of her naval officers were specially loud in their denunciations of those who resorted to it. There was official apathy too, and opposition of friends, but regardless of such, he proceeded to experiment and demonstrate, and with such success that in time the nations of Europe became his pupils, and there were hosts of followers and fellow workers at home, and the Confederate Congress appropriated six millions of dollars for torpedoes. ”

“ Each shell of a row is connected with the next one to it by a stout rope thirty feet long, and capable of lifting it in case the cask be carried away. The casks are water-tight, as are also the tanks, the electric cord entering and returning through the same head. The wire for the return current from the battery is passed from shell to shell and along the connecting rope, which lies at the bottom.
The wire that passes from cask to cask is stopped aslack to the buoy rope from the shell up to the cask to which it is securely seized, to prevent any strain upon that part which enters the cask. ”

“ When the boat was discovered, raised and opened the spectacle was indescribably ghastly, the unfortunate men were contorted into all kinds of attitudes horrible to see; some clutching candles, evidently endeavouring to force open the manholes; others lying on the bottom tightly grappled together ”

“ The torpedo were composed of two small kegs of rifle powder, weighted to sink a few feet below the surface. They were fitted with hair triggers and friction primers, and thirty feet of lanyard attached to the triggers connected the keys. When set afloat in the channel way as near as possible to a vessel and to drift down with the current until the connecting lanyard fouled the anchor chain, or the the vessel and the kegs when swung around the tightened lanyard would fire bow of against her side the trigger and cause the torpedo to explode. ”

“ Maury stated that he had caused to be placed 180 in her channel and waterways, that they held the powerful fleet of Admiral Farragut for ten months at bay, and destroyed fully a dozen United States vessels, of which six were gunboats and four were monitors. Regular torpedo stations were establishedin Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah and Mobile, at which sixty naval officers and men were on duty, preparing these new engines of war. The channel ways, rivers and harbours were protected by them from Virginia to Texas. ”

“ He says Assistant Engineer J. H. Toombs volunteered his services, Major Frank Lee gave me zealous service in fitting a torpedo. James Stuart, or Sullivan, volunteered to go as fireman, and the services of W. Cannon as pilot were secured. I had an armament on deck of four double-barrel shotguns, and as many navy revolvers also four cork life preservers had been thrown on board to make us feel safe. On the fifth of of October, 1863, they left Charleston a little after dark, bound for the federal fleet outside, and especially for the "New Ironsides," the most powerful ship afloat. ”

“ Several miles may be planted in a night and the assailants may be enticed, or invited out in the morning. Passes before an invading army may be mined in advance and thus if he cannot be destroyed, his progress may be so retarded by dress mines or sham mines as almost literally to dig his way. ”

“ Maury, Buchanan, Brooke, Jones and their assistants are the central figures around which revolve to the present day the changes from the old to the new in naval warfare.
Meantime Captain Maury was most diligently employed in London, under the order of the Navy Department in developing and improving his system, afforded by the workshops and laboratories there for experiment and construction. Here he continued during 1863 and 1864, pursuing these researches, perfecting many valuable inventions, and instruments with signal success. ”

“ Captain Maury was in the first boat with the pilot and four oars. Each of the others manned by an officer and four men carried a magazine with thirty fathoms of rope attached. These magazines were oak casks of powder with a fuse in each. Two joined by the rope were stretching across the ebb-tide and when directly ahead of the ships were let go, and floating down the rope caught across the cable, the torpedo would drift and the ship strain the trigger, ignite the fuse and explode. ”

“ The ponderous ship was shaken from stem to stern, and was docked for repairs until the attack on Port Fisher, while the "David" and her crew were uninjured. Captain Rowan reported that the ship was very seriously injured and ought to be sent home for repairs, and Admiral Dahlgren informed the Secretary of the Navy that, "Among the many inventions with which I have been familiar, I have seen none that acted so perfectly at first trial. The secrecy, rapidity of movement, control of direction and precise explosion, indicate, I think, the torpedo element as a means of certain warfare. ”

“ They are to be exploded by means of Electricity. Four of the tanks contain 160 pounds of powder, the eleven other hold 70 pounds. All are made of boiler plate.
They are arranged in rows, as per diagram, those of each row being thirty feet apart. Each tank is contained in a water-tight wooden cask, capable of floating it, but anchored, and held below the surface from three to eight feet, according to the state of the tide. The anchor to each is an eighteen inch shell and a piece of kentledge so placed as to prevent the barrels from fouling the buoy ropes at the change of the tide. ”

“ Maury, assisted by Acting Master W. F. Carter, and R. Rollins, was charged with the duty of proving the tanks and packing them in casks. There are eleven others, each containing 70 pounds of powder. When tested in the barrels and found ready for use, they will be held in reserve in case of accident to those already down. A larger number was not prepared for want of powder. There are a quantity of admirably insulated wire, a number of shells for anchor or torpedoes and a sufficient quantity of chains for the wires remaining. They will be put in the navy store for safe keeping. ”

“ The power to telegraph through these torpedoes is of little consequence, in as much as there need be but one station and one operator. Using the testing fuse manufactured by Abel and a weak voltaic current, the operator can at any time satisfy himself as to continuity. Thus "bridge" and "gulfs" or "breaks" are not required for the land as they are in sea-mining. Ebonite has the further advantage on land that it takes but a single wire. ”

“ At times as many as a hundred a day were caught by the enemy’s netting set out for that purpose in the James River alone.
Captain Francis D. Lee, of General Beauregard’s staff, recommended the spar torpedo, which was very successfully used, especially in the waters around Charleston. It was a case to contain seventy pounds of powder set on the end of a twenty foot spar and rigged on the bow of a boat. It was exploded by contact on the side of the vessel attacked. ”

“ It can be ignored no longer. If sixty pounds of powder why not 600," and the Secretary of the Confederate Navy reported: "On the evening of the 5th of October Lieutenant W. T. Glassell, in charge of the torpedo boat, "David," with Assistant Engineer Tomb, Pilot Walker Cannon, and Seaman James Sullivan, left Charleston to attempt the destruction of the enemy's ship, 'New Ironsides.' Passing undiscovered through the enemy's fleet, he was hailed by the watch as he approached the ship and answering the hail with a shot, he dashed his boat against her and exploded the torpedo under her bilge. ”

“ The “Hunley” had thus cost the lives of thirty-three brave men, but nevertheless, there were still found volunteers to risk theirs for their country-and Lieutenant Dixon found no difficulty in enlisting eight more heroes to attack the Federal steam sloop of war, “Housatonic,” a powerful new vessel of eleven guns, lying on the north channel, opposite Beach Inlet, off Charleston. General Beauregard had refused to let it be used again, but Lieutenant Dixon, having undertaken to use the boat with a spar torpedo in the same manner as the “David;” ”

“ The triggers were then set, the kegs carefully lowered into the water, taking great care not to strain the lanyard was cast off, the boat pulled clear, and we waited to see the torpedo float down until the buoy was reached, the lanyard foul strain and explode the torpedo. But there was delay, the lanyard fouled the buoy all right, the kegs floated past and strained the lanyard, but there was no explosion. ”

“ And these improvements and discoveries enable the engineer at small cost, and short notice effectually to defend any roadstad, or block any river, harbour or pass against the land and naval forces of an enemy without in the least interfering with the free use of the same by friendly powers. ”

“ A plan for planting torpedoes where the water is too deep for them to lie on the bottom and explode with effect, by which they will not interfere with the navigation of the channel, and by which when the enemy makes his appearance they may, by the touch of a key be brought instantly into the required position and at the proper depth. ”

“ McKinley and a trained crew came from Mobile, bringing with him Lieutenant Dixon, of the Twenty-first Alabama Infantry, to fight the boat. He made repeated descents in the harbour, diving under the receiving ship again and gain successfully. But one day, when Dixon was absent from the city, Mr. Hunley, wishing to handle the boat himself, unfortunately made the attempt ”

“ Those on deck near were stunned, the vessel began to sink, and went down almost immediately.
The Department will readily perceive the consequences likely to result from this likely to result from this event: the whole line of blockade will be infested with these cheap, convenient and formidable defenses, and we must guard every point. The measures of prevention are not so obvious. ”