The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-06-14
WAR SCENES AND TOPICS.


Torpedo Boats--an American Idea.
The torpedo boat is an American insitu-
ton. Capt. David Bushnell, an engineer
in the revolutionary army, made the hrst
practical application OF submarine mine
TO ordinary warfare. He constructed a.
submarine boat that would carry torpedo
charged with $50 pounds OF powder. The
mechanism was very clumsy; the torpedo
was to be attached by wooden screw To-
the bottom of an enemys vessel and fired
by a clockwork fuse, The first trial OF this
invention was made in New York harbor
in 1916, when the boat, under the guidance
of Sergeant Ezra Lee, was set under the
bottom OF the Eagle, a British ship of war,
carrying the flag Of Lord Howe. The
wooden screw would not work, and the SER
geant had to cut the torpedo adrift. Dur
ing the following year Capt. Bushnell d.
ected a percussion torpedo against the fri
gate Cerberus, lying off New London, but it
drifted out of its course, and striking a
schooner moored alongside, sent her to the
bottom. Twenty years afterwards Robert
Fulton constructed an improved torpedo
he invented the name as well as the. weapon
and undertook to introduce it abroad. In
1905 he made an unsuccessful! attempt to
destroy the French feet at BoulOgne, but
subsequently blew up brig in Deal har-
Dor by means of two drifting torpedoes.
The British Government rejected his sys-
TEN, and he returned to America to make
further experiments in New York harbOr,
Another American, Col. Samuel Colt, was
the first to apply electricity to the ignition of
torpedoes. After blowing up several yes
sells at anchor, he destroyed, in lS43, q
brig under full sail on the Potomac, operat-
ing by electricity from a station five miles
distant. During the Crimean war contact
mines aud electrical apparatus were intro
duced on the Black Sea, and explosions oc-
Cured under two vessels, but no serious
damage was done. The French engineers,
however, destroyed the docks at SebastO-
pol through the agency Of submarine ex-
plosions.
During the civil war in America torpe-
does were used in the defence of southern
ports. The Confederate Congress organ.
lied torpedo service in October, 1862,
and bureau OF engineers was established
mt Richmond. Two months afterward a
Federal ironcald, the Cairo, was blown VI
on \ aZOO River by torpedo, and during
the remainder of the war seven ironclads
eleven wooden vessels, aud six transport;
were destroyed in similar way. The Con
federates lost the Albemarle, two steam
ers in Charleston Harbor, and a flag of
truce boat in the same way. The Russian
engineers who recently fastened a torpedo
under Turkish ironclad did no more thar
Lieut.. Gushing had done in the waters o
the Roanoke. There were several officer
10 the Confederate service who lost thei
lives in attempting to do what Gushing &C
complished. A submarine torpedo boat
requiring a crew Of nine men, was lunche,
10 Charleston Harbor for use against til
blockading feet. Three crews went TO tn
bottom in this boat before she was directe,
against the enemy. Finally fourth crew
led by Lieut. Dixon, volunteered to tax
her out, and attack the HousatoniC
The lieutenant steered bis boat well; sh
struck the Housatonic fairly and blew he
stern to atoms; the conclusion sent Dixol
and his men to the bottom, and the tor
pedo-boat and the corvette sank together