Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-30
History of Its Development From
Crude Beginnings.
LIEUTENANT CUSHING'S BRAVE DEED
Marvellous Example Of Goodness
and Professional Skill.
ENGINES OF DESTRUCTION

Frank II. Schell in Ieslie's Weekly.
Cen Sherman's dctum that war is hell.
and everything is turned loose has its best
ilustra ton in torpedo warfare, against the
practice of which chivalric natures always
rise in protest. Admiral Farragut, our
dauntless hero of the old type. believed in
wooden ships and IRON hearts," but when
he ran UP against the unseen enemy lurking
beneath the waters of Mobile bay the prac
teal side of his nature asserted itself, and
he wrote from before Mobile: "Torpedoes
are not agreeable when used on both
sides: therefore L have reluctantly brought
myself 10 it. 1 have always deemed it I'M
worthy OF "a chivalrous nation, but it does
not do TO give your enemy such decided
superiority over you.
This has become the accepted verdict of
the nations. and the terribly destructive
agency mas come to stay while exists.
David Bushnell of Connecticut is credited
with the invention of the torpedo, and after
divers experiments he attempted, in 11I6.
To blow up the British SiXty-fourgun ship
Eagle in New York harbor and failed. In
1sii his attempt upon the British fleet
anchored in the Delaware, by setting adrift
torpedoes 10 float down with the ebb tide
at night. might have been a success, but
that the ships, to escape the ice then form
ing, had been hauled into the docks. The
British, much alarmed, fred from the
wharves with artillery and musketry at the
buoys surrounding the floating kegs, and
the incident was the occasion of comic
ode The Battle of the Kegs by Francis
Hopkinson esq, the father of the author of
Hail Columbia.
Robert Fulton afterward spent several
years attempting to perfect the torpedo and
have it legitimzed in naval warfare. He
experimental on the coast of France in
1871, and on the English coast in 1904,
without much success In 1910 he was
thorIzed by Congress to experiment on the
Df-y- a off he Nay.- Nnr
yard. The ship was so inSeniously defend
ed with booms, nets, &c, by Commodore
Rodgers that Fulton met with signal fail
ure, ans he abandoned his experiments.
Early Experiments.
Several Intellectual attempts We're made
during the of 1872 to destroy English
ships. and Il line of torpedoes was stretch
ed across the narrows to protect New York
IL menaced by the enemy's fleet. In 1S29
SAMUEL Colt, the inventor Of the revolver
took up the torpedo idea where Fulton mad
LETT it, and ON the GLORIOUS Fourth" in
1S+2, ne created tremendous patriotic ex-
tlteHent by blowing UP the old gunboat
Boxer off Castle Garden. and in 1853, on the
18th of April. he produced his masterpiece
In experimental explosion by blowing TO
pieces a brig under way. sailing five miles
an hour. on the Potomac river Congress
having adjourned to witness the show
Then. having exhausted the congressional
appropriation. Col. Colt also subsidized from
torpedo developing.
We next learn of the practical applica-
ton Of torDedoes by the Russians during
the Crimcan war. and such was the respect
Inspired by them that CrOnstadt. the port
OF St Petersburg, was spared a serious at
tack by Admiral Napier. commanding the
British fleet in the Baltic Some use of
them was made by the Turks against the
Russians in the Danube. and by the French
in Chinese waters, but our war of the re-
bclll"n gave opportunity to the torpedo to
explode into recognition. to speak, with
such terrific. unexpected and disastrous ef-
feet. that all doubt and cavil were blown
to the winds. as the novel and devastating
force asserted itself in manifold shapes
ard devices.
The vast area of coast and of territory
fraversed by navigable streams exposed to
attack in the south by the naval forces of
the Mon made the justifiable necessity
Tor the coDfederates of offsetting their
great disadvantage i'll that respect by the
exercise or all the ingenuity in the con-
federacy in devising plans of defense by
submarine explosives. and much was the
niger uity developed and great and terrible
the success So that from the time of the
first crude and unsuccessful attempts man
ifested about the Savannah river early in
1sh2 until the close of naval operations in
Mobile haTbor in 1866, have the record
OF casualties from torpedo practice of sew
en- monitors and eleven other vessels of
war totally destroyed during engagement
against confederate ports, while a great
number We're damaged-some permanentIy
others temporarily.
The David.
The torpedoes were of great variety-the
frame torpedo. obstructing a shallow chan
rel: floating and electric varieties and the
David all successful and equally de-
structiye- The David the progenitor of
the Holland boat. furnished an opportunity
for the display of daredevil heroism in
bfisht contrast to the lurking. coward like
dis1olism of the electric operator sitting
securely by his battery on shore and
touching the button while hell did the
rest IL was a very small boat with a
unY engine giving motive power to a tiny
screw. which propelled her about seven
niles IN hour; her torpedo was rugged TO a
spar at the bow. The name was given her
i ~ an oiheer In our navy, who saw in the
Hhehess or the means 10 produce the effect
resemblance TO the scriptural David CO.
ing out 10 STAY Goliath with his sling
me hfst attempt by . David was on
me lfoncIad New Ironsides. off Charleston
her valiant commander, with a crew of
Tour men. with life-preservers on, boldly
ran up 10 the massive ship In the da rk
night, delivered the explosion and iupneJ
INTO the sea, her en- gineer and crew follny-
ing The engineer subsequently got into
ler fthshted her fires, and got her safely
pacK 20 charleston. On the night of Feb
fu'+ry IL, ls64 the sloop-of-war Housatonic
was totally destroyed by a David while
on plockading duty outside of Charleston
nearly al OF her officers and crew being
saved From this time notwithstanding
'he great care and diligence of our naval
officers. which were Offset by the improve
ments to The pests continually being made
by confederate ingenuity the destruction
went on progressively. and led to counter
'ctiitS dr'!ces on the side OF the govern
meht- one of these was the employment
OF a simple steam launch with a spar-rip
geo torpedo at the bow-"David' fashion
ne commodore Barney. a gunboat in the
James river. was hoisted at the stern nv
the explosion of a buoyant torpedo which
threw a tremendous fountain Of dirty water
over her. washing from her depressed bow
hunner OF her crew, who persisted Not
Tar from the same spot the Commodore
Jores was literally blown to fragments Inv
tOFLedo containing 1900 pounds of pow
Ger IN The western rivers Admiral Por-
Tel heet was suffering the loss of gum
E"''s Dy Toe subaqueoLs terrors while at
the Sdh'c time the ccnfederates were pre-
parlnS 10 contest our command of the At
iahtc waters By building roncIads The
history Of the Merrimac everybody knows
She. alter her great success was blown I'm
70 prevent her falling into the hands of the
Union navy.
Cusi fng's PeriIOus Task
While the work of torpedo destruction
was being SrCraSsfiliIu