The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1877-11-22
A FATED TORPEDO.BOAT.
The History of the Craft that Sunk the
H0uSatOnic.

H0usatOnIc.
Gen. G. 7. Beauregard contributes the
following the Philadelphia Weekly
Times:
Nearly about the time of the attack
upon the New Ironsides by the David,
Mr.. Horace l.. Huntley, formerly of
New Orleans, but then living in Mobile,
offered me another torpedo-boat of diff
ferent description, which had been built
with his private means. 1t was shaped
like fish, made of galvanized iron, was
twenty feet long, and at the middle three
and half feet wide by five deep. From
its shape it came to be known as the
fish torpedo-boat." Propelled by
screw worked from the inside by seven
or eight men, it was SO contrived that it
could be submerged and worked under
water for several hours, and to this end
was provided with a fin on each side,
worked also from the interior. Ry de-
pressing the points of these fins, the boat
when in motion was made TO descend,
and by elevating it was made to rise.
Light was afforded through the means of
bulPs-eyes placed in the man-holes. Mr..
Payne, the engineer who had successfully
saved the David, having volunteered
with a crew from the Confederate navy
to man the fish-boat for another attack
upon the New Ironsides, it was given
into their hands for that purpose. While
tied to the wharf at Fort Johnson, whence
it was to start under cover of night to
make the attack, a steamer passing close
by capsized and sunk it. Mr.. Payne,
who at the time was standing in one of
the man-holes, jumped out into the wa
ter, which, rushing into the two openings,
drowned two men then within the body
of the boat. After the recovery of the
sunken boat Mr. Hunley came from Mo-
bile, bringing with him Lieut.. Dixon, of
the Alabama volunteers, who had sue
cessfully experimental with the boat in
the harbor of Mobile, and under him an
other naval crew volunteered to work it.
As originally designed, the torpedo was
to be dragged astern upon the surface of
the water; the boat approaching the
broadside of the vessel to be attacked,
was to dive beneath it, and, rising to the
surface beyond, continue its course, thus
bringing the floating torpedo against the
vessels side, when it would be dis
charged by trigger contrived to go off
by the contact Lieut.. Dixon made re-
peated descents i'll the harbor of Charles
ton, diving under the naval receiving
ship which lay at anchor there. But one
day when he was absent from the city
Mr.. Hunley, unfortunately, wishing to
handle the boat himself, made the at
tempt 1t was readily submerged, but
did not rise again to the surface, and all
on board persisted from asphyxiation.
When the boat was discovered, raised
and opened, the spectacle was indescrib
ably chastity; the unfortunate men were
contorted into all kinds of horrible atti-
tudes; some clutching candlessevidently
in the endeavor to force open the man
holes; other lying in the bottom tightly
grappled together, and the blackened
faces of all presented the expression of
their despair and agony. After this
tragedy / refused to permit the boat to
be used again; but Lieut.. Dixon, a brave
and determined man, having returned to
Charleston, applied to me for authority
to use it against the Federal steam sloop-
of-war Housatonie, a powerful new YES
sci, carrying eleven guns of the largest
caliber, which lay at the time in the north
channel opposite Beach Inlet, materially
obstructing the passage of our blockade
runners in and out. At the suggestion
of my Chief-of-Staff, General Jordan, |
consented to its use for this purpose, not
as a submarine machine, but in the same
manner as the David. As the Housatonic
was easily approached through interior
channels from behind Sullivan's Island,
and Lieutenant Dixon readily procured
a volunteer crew, his little vessel was
fitted with a Lee spar-torpedo, and the
expedition was undertaken. Lieutenant
Dixon, acting with characteristic cool
ness and resolution, struck and sunk the
Housatonic; But unhappily, from some
unknown cause, the torpedo boat was
also sunk, and all with it lost. Several
years since a "diver" examining the
wreck of the Housatonic, discovered the
fish boat lying alongside of its victim.