Maury was not given an opportunity to demonstrate his improved mine, until late in July or early in August, 1861, when the Secretary of the Navy, the Governor of Virginia, and the Chairman of the Committee of Naval Affairs consented to witness a trial on the James River at Rocketts, where the James River Steamboat Company’s wharf is now located. Maury thus describes the trial: “I made a pair of submarine batteries. Your man Mallory pronounced them humbugs. I got him and Conrad (Chairman of Naval Affairs Committee, House of Representatives) to go and see them blow up the James River. I put them adrift aiming them at a buoy. They caught, drifted down, tightened the rope, pulled the trigger, and off they went blowing the river, or some of it, sky high and killing innumerable fish. So Mallory after that asked for an appropriation of $50,000 to enable me to go ahead”.
This money was not, however, immediately forthcoming, and Maury complained that he was forced to lay on his oars and wait for the word from Congress, “Go ahead!” He also wrote that he was anxious to mine the river passes to both Richmond and Fredericksburg with these submarine batteries which would be exploded by electricity, but that lack of materials was delaying the project. During this delay, he planned another attack on the Union ships off Newport News. This materialized in an attempt which was made, on October 10, by Lieutenant Robert D. Minor to sink the Savannah and the Minnesota, but this second trial also met with failure. Maury had planned to take part himself in the attack, but was prevented from doing so by his being ordered to Richmond with the expectation of being sent to mine the Mississippi River. He did not, however, go on this mission, though he had considerable correspondence with General Polk, who wished to place mines in the river at Columbus, Kentucky. Some mines were sent to Memphis with full instructions as to how they should be planted; and here others were constructed, after Maury’s model, to be used elsewhere on the river.
About the first of May, 1862, Maury had the good fortune to secure ten miles of insulated wire which enabled him to mine the James River with electric mines, according to the plans which he had been compelled to lay aside for several months for lack of material. This wire had been used by the Federals in attempting to lay a submarine telegraph across the Chesapeake from Fortress Monroe to Eastville; but having been forced to abandon the attempt, they left the wire in the water and the waves cast it upon the beach near Norfolk where a friend, Dr. Morris, secured it for Maury’s use.
The following report describes the mines that were then constructed and relates how they were laid down in the James River early in June, 1862: “The James River is mined with fifteen tanks below the iron battery at Chapin’s (Chaffin’s) Bluff. They are to be exploded by means of electricity. Four of the tanks contain 160 pounds of powder; the eleven others hold 70 pounds each. All are made of boiler plate. They are arranged in rows as per diagram, those of each row being 30 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 anchors of each are an 18-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. Each shell of a row is connected with the one next 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 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 slack 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. The return wire is stopped in like manner down along the span to the next shell, as per the rough sketch. At 4 (in the sketch) the two cords are frapped together, loaded with trace chains a fathom apart, and carried ashore to the galvanic battery.
“For batteries we have 21 Wollastons, each trough containing eighteen pairs of plates, zinc and iron, ten by twelve inches. The first range is called 1, the second 2, and the third 3, and the wires are so labeled. Thus all of each range are exploded at once.
“Besides these, there are two ranges of two tanks each, planted opposite the battery at Chapin’s Bluff. When they were planted, it was not known that a battery was to be erected below. These four tanks contain about 6,000 pounds of powder. The great freshet of last month carried away the wires that were to operate the first pair, ‘A’ (in a diagram enclosed, which showed the exact location of the various mines).
“Lieutenant Davidson, who with the Teaser and her crew has assisted me with a most hearty good will, has dragged for the tanks without success. They rest on the bottom. Could they be found, it was my intention to raise the four, examine them, and, if found in good order, place them below the range, ‘I’.
“Lieutenant William L. 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 the want of powder. There are a quantity of admirable insulated wire, a number of shells for anchors or torpedoes, and a sufficient quantity of chains for the wires remaining. They will be put in the navy store for safe-keeping. The galvanic batteries; viz., 21 Wollastons and 1 Cruikshank, the latter loaned by Dr. Maupin of the University of Virginia, with spare acids, sulphuric and nitric, are at Chapin’s Bluff in charge of Acting Master Cheeney. He has also in jugs a sufficient quantity mixed to work the batteries, and ready to be poured in for use.
“It is proper that I should mention to the Department in terms of commendation the ready and valuable assistance afforded by Dr. Morris, president telegraph company, and his assistant, especially by Mr. Goldwell. My duties in connection with these batteries being thus closed, I have the honor to await your further orders”.