Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-10-25
CONFEDERATE TORPEDO BOATS.

Shortly after the bold attempt of Captain
Carlm, in the summer Of 1863, to blow up the
New Ironsides, DR.. Rsvenel and other gen.
tlemen of Charleston had built small cigar
shaped boat, which they called the David.
1t had been specially planned and built by
them to attack this much.dreaded naval Co.
lah, the New Ironsides. 1t was 20 feet long,
with diameter of feet at its middle, and
was propelled by small screw worked by q
diminutive engine. As soon as ready for SER
vice, I caused it to be fitted with Lee spar
torpedo" charged with seventy-fve pounds Of
powder. Captain Glassell, an enterprising
sficer of the Confederate States Navy, took
charge of it, and about o'clock one dark
night, on the ebb tide, with the crew Of an
engineer, fireman and one sailor, he fearless
ly set forth from Charleston on his perilous
mission-the destruction of the New Iron
sides. I may note that this vessel threw 8
great deal more metal at each broadside than
all the monitors together of the fleet; her fire
was delivered with more rapidity and accu-
racy, and she was the most effective naval en-
gine employed in the reduction Of Battery
Wagner. The David reached the New Iron.
sides about 10 o'clock p. M, striking her with
the torpedo about feet under water, but for
tunately for that vessel the shock was against
one of her inner bulkheads, which saved her
from destruction. The water, however, being
thrown up in large volume, half filled the
little assailant and extinguished its fire. 1t
then drifted out to sea with the current, un-
der a heavy musketry fire from the much
alarmed crew of the New Ironsides. Sup
posing the David disabled, Glassell and his
men jumped into the water to swim ashore ;
but be and the sailor had to take refuge in
one of the coal barges of the Federal feet at
anchor in the outer harbor, and became pris.
oners. His other two companions, after
swimming about for time and espying the
David still afoat, betook themselves to it.,
re-lit the fire without difficulty and steamed
back with the now returning tide into Charles
ton, after one of the most daring feats of the
war. The New Ironsides never fired anoth-
er shot after this attack upon her. After re-
naming some time at her anchorage of Nor.
ris Island, evidently undergoing repairs, she
was taken to Port Royal, probably to fit her
for her voyage to Philadelphia, where she re-
NAMED till destroyed by fire after the war.
As for Captain Glassell and his companion,
regret to say that, for time, they were not
treated as prisoners of war, but ironed, con-
fined to cell and menaced with hanging.
OF course however, they had to be set at lib.
erty in the ordinary course of exchange Of
naval prisoners, as about that time l had
planned and successfully executed the sur
prise and capture in the Stono River of the
heavily armed Federal gunboat the Isaac
Smith, with more than one hundred officers
and men-a stroke executed entirely by de-
tachments of light artillery placed in am
bush upon the river banks, and under whose
fire the Federal gunners were unable to man
and use their powerful guns.
Nearly about the time of the attack upon
the new Ironsides by the David, Mr.. Horace
l.. Hunley, formerly of New Orleans, but
then living in Mobile, offered me another tor
pedo boat ofa different description, which had
been built of his private means. 1t was
shaped like a 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 "6sh torpe.
do boat" Propelled by screw worked from
the inside by seven or eight men, it was 80
contrived that it could be submerged and
worked under water for several hours, and to
this end was provided with fin on each side,
worked also from the interior. By depressing
the points of these fms, the boat, when in mo-
ton, was made to descend, and by elevating
them it was made to rise. Light was afforded