Barrel Torpedo used at Charleston, made of an ordinary barrel with ends of solid wood; fired by electricity
Confederate Torpedo for Rivers
A, Outer shell. B, Air chamber to keep end up. C, Gunpowder. D, Pistol with trigger connected with rod. E, Rod with prongs to catch vessel coming up stream. F, Iron bands with rings. G, Weights anchoring torpedo.
It remained for the mechanical ingenuity of the Americans to establish the submarine mine as a recognized naval weapon. In the long war between North and South a considerable use was made of improvised submarine mines, principally by the Southerners in trying to prevent the ships of the big Federal Fleet from penetrating their estuaries and harbours. Space forbids description in detail of these contrivances, but the sketches on p. 185 will enable you to form some idea of their construction. The results obtained induced the British Admiralty to carry out a series of experiments in 1865. The old Terpsichore was blown up by a "torpedo-shell" charged with 75 pounds of powder, and very much higher powered mines were tried in various ways. Other European nations could not afford to overlook this form of warfare, and it was largely owing to the use of defensive submarine mines that the Germans kept the powerful French fleet from attacking their coast in the war of 1870. Ten years later mines and their appliances were part of the equipment of most large war-vessels, which carried two kinds, one holding 250, the other 500 pounds of gun-cotton. They were perfectly safe to handle, although fully charged, since the gun-cotton was kept wet and could only be exploded by inserting a small canister of dry gun-cotton as a primer. They were intended to be used for countermining and blowing up an enemy's mine defences, or for defending the ship at anchor. For harbour defence at home and in our overseas dominions a special branch of the Royal Engineers was formed, known as the Submarine Miners, who had charge of everything connected with this part of our national defences; but with the advent of the submarine this duty was assumed by the Royal Navy.
CHAPTER XIII
Naval Brigades