Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-11-18
PICKING UP A TORPEDO.
An Exciting Adventure i'm the
Waters of the Red River.

From the Detroit Free Press.
was among others detailed from the
Federal steamer Monongahea to search
the Red river between the Tensar and the
Mississippi for the torpedoes which had
been planted by the Conrederates before
our fleet appeared in those waters. These
torpedoes were of all makes, shapes and
sizes, from pork barrel half full OF pow.
der, to be fired by electricity from shore,
to glass demijOhn holding 10 pounds
and to be exploded by contact. Some were
on the surface, some just under it and
some on the bottom. We went out in
gangs OF four in row boats to hunt these
TERRIERS, each boat being provided with
grapnels, nets, boat,hooks and whatever
else was needed for fishing up the mon
sters. We had to go slow and exercise
great caution, for the channel was tor
tuous and no one could guess at what
point we would come across q torpedo,
While the woods were shelled two Or
three times a day by our gun boats, the
Confederate sWampcatS were by no means
driven out. They had every chance to Sc
crete themselves along the banks, and we
realized that if we came upon an electric
torpedo which could be exploded from
the shore we ran every risk OF being
blown sky-high.
We had been at work three or four
days and had fshed up seven or eight ugly
looking fellows, when we got into a part
of the channel which ran within 80 feet of
the right hand bank. just at this time a
colOred man who had been lying out in
the sWamps for several weeks waiting for
his deliverance informed us that he had
observed men planting something in this
bend about two weeks before. He
thought there were wires leading to it
from the swamp, but we secuted for a
couple of hours without being able to find
that such was the case. The bank was q
dense jungle in which a thousand men
could have concealed themselves, and the
gun boats could not shell 1t from the posi-
ton they had taken.
1t was about an hour after dinner that
we moved up and began graphing IN the
bend. The boat in which was stationed
turned her bow down stream, threw over
her grapnels, and two men used the oars
to give ner Roadway. We had not pulled
80 feet when the irons took hold, and !
drew the boat back to the spot by means
of the rope. Then, standing on the seat
In the stern, | lifted at the obstruction.
aud it came slowly up. 1t had Just ap-
peared at the surface sufficient for me to
make out that ii was boiler-iron torpedo
when there came an awful explosion. At
the same instant our boat was lifted high
in the air and broken to pieces, and |
scarcely cOmprehended what had oc-
CURED until found myself in the water
| about 200 hundred feet below the point of
explosion. My hair, whiskers and eye
brows were badly slnged, and my cloth
ing was on ire as | came down after the
| flight. While L had escaped the other
| three men were killed outright and horri-
bly, mangled, and the great wave created
swamped the boat, working few hun
dred feet below us and drowned one of her
| crew.
While swimming for the capsIzed boat
| a man stood on the bank of the river and
| fired four shots at me from a revolver, and
with the fifth he killed the colored man
who had given us information. The vic
| tim stood on the bank, about midway be-
| tween the two boats, and was shot through
| the head. The torpedo was no doubt eX-
ploded by electricity, and the man who
| fired the shots was the operator who ex.
ploded it.