The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1870-11-03

been made The torpedo was lying along
side the steamer from which the crew had
embarked she was submerged until the comb
ing Of her hatch alone was visible above the
water. Her commander, Payne, was stand
ing in tho hatchway, in the act Of ordering
her to be cast off, when the swell of passing
steamer rolled over her and sunk her instant.
| ly with her eight men, in seven fathoms Of
water Lieut.. Payne sprang out of the hatch
way as the boat sunk from under him, and he
alone was left, alive. 1!*r(T 14FfE
In the course Of a few days she was raised
and again Payne volunteered, and eight men
with him. iFiI ,1f9
The embarkation for their second attempt
was made from Fort Sumptcr, and as before,
all having been ready, Payne standing at his
post in the hatchway, ordered the hawser to
be cast of-when the boat caresned and sunk
instantly Payne sprang out, two Of the men
followed him; the other six went down in
the boat and persisted q o.
Again the boat was raised and made ready
for action and her owner, Captain Handley
took her for an experimental trip into the
Stone river where after going through her
usual revolutions, she dived into deep water,
and for hours, and for days, the return of
Handley and his crew was watched for and
looked for in vain After near weeks
search she was found incining at an angle Of
forty degrees her ,pozzle was drihen deep in
the soft mud of the bottom Her crew of
nine dead men were standing, sitting lying
about in her hold asphixiated. Handley was
standing dead at his post, candle in one
hand while the other had grown stiff with
death in his vain efforts to unclamp the latch
Others had been working at the keys of the
ballast, but the inclination at which the boat
had gone down had janlmed the keys so that
the men could not cast off the heavy weight
which held them down. Their deaths had
been hard and lingering, ai ,p, b4o b.
Again this fateful vessel was made ready
for action, ard volunteers being called for.
Lieut.. Dixon Twenty first Alabama yolun.
teers, native Of Mobile, and eight men vol.
untecrcd to take her against the enemy.nga
The new and powerful war ship, Housaton.
lc, was selected for attack and on quiet
night the bravest GREY set out from Charles.
ton, in this terrible, nameless torpedo boat,
that ever manned craft before 40 y5ed
We all know the fate of the brave Housa-
tonic. Brave Dixon guided the torpedo fairly
against her, the explosion tore up the great
war ships sides, so that she went down with
all her crew within two minutes. 1hlrso
The torpedo vessel also disappeared forever
from mortal view. Whether she went down
with her enemy or whether she drifted out to
sea TO bury her gallant dead, was never
known, and their fate was left till the great
day wien the sea shall give up her dead.
But within few weeks past, divers in SUBJ
marine armor have visited the wreck of the
llousatonic, and they have found the little
torpedo vessel lying by her huge victim, and
within her arc the bones Of the most devoted
and daring men that ever went to war. No
iorlorn hope or other desperate enterprise of
war can furnish the parallel to the courage Of
Dixon aud his comrades. l1H7e