The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-01-27
&" COAL TORPEDOES."
4 HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND
OBJECT OF The TERRIBLY
DESTRUCTIVE AGENT.
From Letter to Editor of London Times. !

Perhaps short account by one whC
is acquainted with the origin and objec
of the coal torpedo, referred to in the
Times of yesterday, may interest some o
your readers.
In the winter of 1868, Captain Cour'
tenay obtained from the Confederate
War Department the facilities for max.
ing some experiments with his coal cast
ings at Richmond, Va, to be used fol
collapsing the boilers of the enemy's
war vessels and transports by introducing
the sham coal into the Government coal
piles at the various United States Naval
Depots along the coast and on the great
rivers in the interior
The experiments were so successful
that the system was finally adopted, and
operations were commenced shortly af-
ter. The torpedoes were irregular iron
or steel castings, three-eighths of an inch
thick, except at the core-hole, which was
reinforced to allow thread being turned
in it to receive the fuse or plug. The
models were taken from polylateral
pieces of coal picked at random from a
pile, not so large as to require "trim-
ming" by the fireman before being shov-
eled into the furnace, The interior was
rendered smooth by centrifugal motion
with emery to reduce the risk of ex-
plosion by chatting while introducing the
charge. The shell being filled and closed
with brass plug it was dipped by means
of string into boiling mixture of coal
tar, pulverized coal-either anthracite or
bituminous, whichever was desired to be
represented-and a small quantity of
resin or beeswax, then plunged instantly
into bucket of iced water, the result
being a coating of about three-quarters
of an inch in thickness, which gave the
shell, when the surface gloss had been
scraped of, the exact resemblance of a
lump of coal-in weight, smell and gen.
eral appearance.
Several of these were dropped into the
United States Government coal depot at
Fortress Monroe, and led to the destruc-
ton of the new sloop-of-war Chenango
and also of the splendid steamer Grey
hound, used as the ead.quarter boat of
the Army of the James, the illustrious
commander of which, General B. F But
Ter, and Admiral Porter nearly lost their
lives, having just left the vessel before
her boilers collapsed. Both these ves-
sells had coaled mp from the same pile at
Fort Monroe shortly before.
The coal torpedo, has to my knowl-
edge, been seriously examined and con-
sidered by more than one Government,
and sums of money have been awarded
by two of them for samples and infor-
nation connected with their manufac-
ture. 1t is very probable that the coal
torpedo, which can be made of less size
and therefore more difficult to detect
and more easily handled and distributed
as our knowledge of Eliminates ad-
vances, may play conspicuous part in
the next maritime war. A few years
past the whole system of torpedo attack
or defense was denounced as barbarous
and outside the laws of man and COM
mon humanity. Both Admiral S. P.
Lee, commanding the United States
squadron on the James River during
Grants Petersburg campaign, and Admi-
raj Dahlgren, commanding off Charles
ton, S. c., proclaimed no quarter to Con-
federate torpedo operators; and after the
destruction of the United States ship
Commodore Jones in the James River
by the submarine torpedoes at Deep Bot
tom, in charge of Commander Hunter
Davidson, Confederate States Navy, one
of the operators, warrant officer in the
Confederate States Navy, who fell into
the enemy's hands, was Immediately put
to death in 1864. Now, in 1875, the
United States Navy is ahead of all others
in the science and practice of offensive
torpedo warfare, and maintains an elabo-
rate torpedo school at Newport, Rhode
Island, through which all officers are
obliged to graduate.
During the Revolutionary War, and
again as late as the War of 1912, the
British press and public denounced the
use of the rife by the American troops
as barbarous, and the picking off of men
at long ranges ss murderous and inhu-
man. Temporal n,utGntur.
The blowing up of Grants powder
bulk at City Point in 1864 was not ac-
complished, as your correspondent sup
poses, by an internal machine on the
villain Thomas's model, but by vol
canic fuse, with gimlet point which
was screwed into barrel of fixed am
munition on board, or on its way to the
powder vessel moored off City Point,
and containing nearly four hundred tons
of powder and ammunltion-the reserve
supply of the Grand Army of the Poto-
mac then investing Petersburg and Rich
mond. 1t was accomplished by men,
beI of the Secret Service Corps, who en-
tered the Federal lines as a refugee and
obtained employment at City Point in
the Quartermasters or Ordnance Depart
ment until an opportunity offered. His
fuse was regulated for three days from
the time he crushed the vial of sulphuric
acid contained in the head of the fuse;
it took that time for the released acid to
eat through the copper plates placed un-
der it and communicate with the compo-
sition placed beueath them, when the
fuse exploded. In the meanwhile the
operator made his escape, and having
carried out his desperate enterprise, re-
turned safely to Richmond.
1t is fortunate that Thomasand his |
were ignorant of the certainty
Of the McEvoy volcanic fuse and retain
I'D the antiquated and exploded system |
IF the clock firing apparatus.
In conclusion, l may say that it was
by committee of the Fenian
Congress, Assembled in New York in
1867, to distribute quantity of coal tor
oedaes in the coal cellars of Her Majes-
US Ministers and prominent public men
n London, but was abandoned on sug-
,estion that many kitchens in London
would have Irish maids connected with