Connecticut western news., 1879-03-26
A CHAPTER ON TORPEDoEs.
AN EXPERTS ACCOUNT OF THEM-coM- WANDER B1AKE's FERROUS VOYAGE UP THE JAMES RIvER-HoW TO CLEAR A CHANNEL-A HUMAN CUTWATER.

AN EXPERTS ACCOUNT OF THEM-coM- WANDER BLAKE's FERROUS VOYAGE
 UP THE JAMES RIvER-HoW TO CLEAR
 CHANNEL-A HUMAN CUTWATER.
 At meeting of the New York Acad- emy of Science, Com mander Blake, of the United States Navy. said that he considered torpedoes the most demoral- izing weapon of warfare. When it was determined to send ironclads up the James River as part of the combined at- tack upon Richmond, he was in com mand of the Eutaw, and assigned to the duty of towing the monitor Onondaga. The speaker said :-
 So far as we were concerned the war was about to. be terminated, for none of us thought we would get up the river knowing that crowds of torpedoes had been placed over every shallow, and some of the men declined to go. was sixth in the line at first, but thought, if there was death and danger, the sooner it was met and over with the better :; therefore, instead of slowing down at suspected places went ahead, and be- fore long stood second in the line. We got nearly to Drury's Point without a sign of torpedo, and began to think they were humbug and to laugh at our fears, when suddenly we saw the lead | ing vessel, the Commodore Jones, lifted bodily out of the water and blown into the merest fragments. Out of sixty men on board of her the only trace we could ever find was 8 piece of 8 man among the bushes about three hundred yards away. This event completely de- moralized us all. We saw there was some virtue in torpedoes, and anchored on the spot, and was ordered in charge of party to clear the channel the next day.
 That night I received from Gen. But Ter characteristic letter. It read:
 CT send you man who was found putting down torpedoes. If you can use him, do so; if not, hang him."
 When the prisoner, fne-looking, intelligent man, came, asked him if the report concerning him was true.
 "Yes," said he; "What you going to do about it ?" "Well, read that letter." said I. "Do you call that Christian warfare p he asked, after reading it.
 "There is nothing Christian in war, J l 1on 01 unless you show us the easiest way to clear this channel"
 He remained silent, and I left him sitting on a gun-carriage for little while to think about it. Meanwhile Captain (now Commander) Fyfsa came aboard, and noticing the prisoner asked me about him. "Let me have him, he said "I think can get something out of him." So he took him, and 6 little while after saw him put out ur the river, with the rebel prisoner lashec to his cutwater. He only went about three hundred yards when the mar called out: "Stop, captain, stop, fol Gods sake There's a torpedo ius over there." This one removed, it wa. not long before another was pointed out by the terrified man, and so we cleared the channel.
 This expedition over was given com mand of the station and torpedo vessels at Dutch Gap, where sometimes we use6 to pick up floating torpedoes sent agains our fleet, at the rate of one hundred { day. These torpedoes were suspended in pairs, or three or four together, to al many pieces of wood, which hoated upo1 the surface, and were connected by [, trigger-Iine. Whenever the trigger-lin' caught upon one of our vessels (th' only obstacle to be enceuntered) strai1 came upon it by the action of the cur rent which exploded the two or thre torpedoes in close contact with the hull This was the theory, and we guarded against it by putting out boom ant netting in such way that the torped' floats were sheered off and foated harm lessly by. In the spring the water wa covered with all sorts of debris, but w soon learned to distinguish torpedo float by it's peculiar bobbing motion and by throwing cod d-line over could either explode it at safe dis tance or else drag it ashore. The smal boats thus fished out hundreds of thes during the season.
 ] The most dangerous of all tn torpedoes were stationary ones plante, across the shadows at frequent inter ,, vals. They consisted of spar, bear ing the torpedo upon it's summit, whicl spar was fastened by a universal join to fixed block at the bottom of tn river. Swinging with the current an tide this torpedo was always kept at
 uniform depth beneath the surface an
 was out of sight. The torpedo wa
 studded with sensitive caps, and n
 matter where it was touched by shi o it would explode. These could not b
 grappled for, and it was only by goo z luck, care and great ingenuity that W escaped and finally got them out of tn channel. The torpedo which blew u
 the Commodore Jones was 8 commo water-tank containing two hundre pounds of powder, which she was so UT fortunate as to strike.
 Commander Blake thought, however that the destructiveness of torpedoe was over-estimated, and that the navie