Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-10-14
PICKING UP A TORPEDO.
Thrown 200 Feet by an Explosion in the Red
River Of the South.

| hlFeT OF the SOURI,.
Detroit Free Press
/ was among others, detailed from
the federal steamer Monongahela, says
as. E. r." to search the Red River be-
tween the Tensas and the Mississippi,
for the torpedoes which had been
planted by the confederates before
our fleet appeared in those waters.
These torpedoes were OF all makes,
shapes and sizes, from a pork barrel
hall full of powder, to be fired by cleo
tricity from the shore, to aglass demi-
| john holding ten pounds, and to be
| exploded by contact. Some were on
| the surface, some Just under it, and
some Just on the bottom. We went
| in gangs of four rowboats to hunt for
| these TERRIERS, each boat being pro-
vided with grapnels, nets, boathooks,
and whatever else were needed for
fishing up the monsters. We had togo
| slow and exercise great caution, TO
| the channel was tortuous and no one
| could guess at what point we would
| come across q torpedo. While the
i
woods were shelled two or three times
aday by our gunboats, the Confederate
swampcats were by no means driven
out. They had every chance to se-
! crete themselves along the banks, and
we realized that if we came upon an
| electric torpedo which could be ex-
ploded from the shore We ran every
risk of being blown sky high.
| We had been at work three or four
| days, and had fished up seven or eight
I ugly looking fellows, when we got into
| a part OF the channel which ran with
in fifty feet OF the right hand bank.
| Just at this time colored man, who
had been lying out in the swamps TOR
several weeks waiting for his deliver
ance, informed us that he had OBJ
served men planting something in this
| bend about two weeks before. He
| thought there were wires leading from
| it to the swamp, but we secuted about
for couple OF hours without being
able to find that such was the case.
The bank was a dense Jungle, in which
a thousand men could have concealed
| themselves, and the gun-boats could
not shell it from the position they had
| taken.
1t was about an hour after dinner
that we moved up and began graphing
in the bend. The boat i'll which | was
stationed turned her bow down
stream, threw over her grapnels, and
| two men used the oars to give her
| Roadway. We had not pulled fifty
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, and it came slowly up.
| 1t had just appeared at the surface
\ sufficient for me to make out that it
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 l
| scarcely comprehended what had oc-
cured until Hound myself in the water
at least 200 feet below the point OF
explosion. My hair, whiskers and
eyebrows were badly singed, and my
clothing was on fire as l came down
after the flight. While | had escaped,
| the other three men were killed out
right and horribly mangled, and the
great wave created swamped the boat
working a few hundred feet below us
ana drowned one of her crew.
While swimming for this capsized
boat 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 victim stood on
the bank, about midway between the
two boats, and was shot through the
head. The torpedo was no doubt
exploded by electricity, and the man
who fired the shots was the operator
| who exploded IT.