The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-28
TORPEDOES IN WARFARE
HOW FAMOUS VESSELS HAVE BEEN
BLOWN UP THE PAST CENTURY.
Fate of the Maine Recalls Other Dis
asters of the Deep, and Equal
Iy Mysterious.
New York Herald.

! there, will be found the key to the mys-
teries with which the annals of the sea are
! so replete. Hundreds of vessels and thou
| sands of lives have been sacrificed in this
| century alone, and out of the ocean no hint
or whisper of the determining causes has
| been vouchsafed or ever will be- Wrecks
| by hurricane, by sudden burst of squall, by
collision in the open with other ships, with
wreckage or ice masses, by leaks no pumps
could keep under-these and many others
are matters of annual record. But what OF
the other causes which no human agency
may solve? Boiler explosions. fire, spon-
taneous combustion in coal or cargo, and
what sailors are pleased to call IAN under
writer's job" where ships have been sent to
sea- with internal machines secreted among
the stores or in the hidden recesses of their
holds-who may enumerate the missing
ships lost from some one of these causes,
which in the shipping records of old were
tabulated as by 1.-The act of God"
No navy is free from sad stories of ex-
plosions in its powder and ammunition mag
azines, and since the beginning of our civil
war the number of vessels destroyed by tor
pedoes in some form or by submarine mines
makes a grewsome list. Is it generally
known, for example, that in the rebellion
seven monitors and eleven wooden vessels
of war were totally destroyed by submarine
mines? Had the Southerners possessed the
same knowledge at the beginning OF the
war the struggle would have been, at the
least, much prolonged, and the disaster TO
life and tonnage been greatly increased.
During our early struggles several vessels
were blown up, notably the Randolph, OF
immortal memory, but the most memorable
case, and surely one of the most pathetic,
was the destruction of the Intrepid, COM
manded by the gallant Somers. She was
fitted out as floating NINE and on the
night of Sept. 4, 1904, started from on shore
under sail for the inner harbor of Tripoll
Anxious eyes watched her from the blockad-
ing fleet, and at 10 o'clock a thunderous re-
port was heard, a column of flame was seen
vibrating in the skies, and then the roar
of hundreds of guns, mounted ashore No
one came back to tell the story. but 1t is
believed that Somers, kept his word not to
be taken alive by the enemy and blew up
the ship to escape capture. 1t was learned
ledge of the harbor, and that she had been
attacked by three gunboatS. IL was sur
missed, but never known, that, to prevent
the valuable supply of ammunition 1alnng
into the hands of the enemy, Somers fired
her, destroying his own people and the
Tripolitans swarming out of their boats into
THE FULTON DESTROYED.
In June. 1929, the wooden ship Fulton, then
stationed as the receiving ship off Brooklyn,
blew up from causes never revealed. Seven
ty-five persons were killed and about thirty
were wounded Tradition has woven many
a romantic, many an Impossible story about
this disaster. One yarn told creepingly how
a gunner's mate had been punished as ne
thought unjustly, and in revenge destroyed
the ship In so doing he lost his own life,
but failed in killing the object of his hatred,
an officer, who had left the ship quietly
short time before the commission OF the
crime The real story seems to be that
fuddled gunner's mate by some error made
his way into the magazine with an exposed
lighted candle, stumbled into the power
barrel of the period ana thus blew the snip
In the English service there have been
number of notable cases of explosion, put
mainly in action. One we'll known IN tlWe
of peace was the destruction Of the frlgate
Amphion, Capt. Israel Pellew COMMANDING,
off Plymouth, England. Here, too, a gun
ner's mate appears as the god in the ma,
chine for apocryphal or not, 1t Is Deneyen
to this day that the seaman in question
went with lighted lamp into the magaz nars
TO steal powder, which then had a READY
market. Several hundred people We're de,
stroyed, among them prominent omclals anu
citizens of the town who were olhlhg Oh
board. .41 -
Among other crimes laid so unJustly 70
Irish sympathizers by. the English press ana
people was the destruction OF me bai iias
gunboat Dotterel in the Straits OF Magellan
She arrived off Punta Arenas ABOUT ., d. NJ.
on April rs, 1884, The captain went ashore
soon after to pay ms oIncai call v alre heard
and an immense cloud of smoke was seen
towering over the ship in the perfect cam
of the morning. ProjectieS or all KINDS,
masses of human beings, of ship equ1page
and of general wreckage were discovered
flying through the air, and the water LOT d
quarter OF mile around the snip was IL ~
tered with debris. Boats put on from the
shore. and out of the whole snip $ company
of over $50 souls only eight were saVeofc
the disaster and South America ana AUS
tralia were the scenes of police INQUIRY TOT
months. 1t is now. believed that the tsi+ eM1
piosion was due to the spontaneous Ignition
IF 4 naint then used in the British navy;
This under deterioration or When exposed
TO heat was found to give on hghiy IN
1ammahle gas and as the first explosion
occurred in the neighborhood or the PANT
locker this plausible theory is now accepLIeu.
During the last twenty years Two oLher
eases have occurred--one when IN 1881
SPANISH gunboat was blown up III tne mar
Dor OF Santiago de Cuba. ana me otne l,,i III
1898 when most damaging ana ulstt ~ essins
explosion occurred on board or the GERMAN s iaI
arrnortd ship Baden, then at anchor OIL h4el.
EARLY WAR INVENTIONS.
Of the war inventions employed to de-
st1oy ships by submarine or aerial proJec-
tics or nv mines the number is legion. we
were among the earliest to employ these,
and our contributions to the history of tor
pedo warfare have been very many ana
very notable. The famous Battle OF the
Kegs has been sung in mock heroic verses,
and the Philadelphians Of 1777 had many
merry lest over the valorous attack made
by the British grenaders upon these IN
nocuous barrels. Captain David Bushnell,
of Connecticut, was one of the earliest eX-
perimenters with torpedoes though Robert
Fulton was the first to call magazine of
powder intended for use under water by
This name. This great inventor made many
exDeriments and the partisans and oppon-
ents of the new system filled the Journals
of that day with acrimonious DISCUSSIONS.
and the general feeling against TINS mode
of warfare inhuman and barbarous
caused. however, its practical Abandonment
for many years
Submarine boats had been generally en-
ployed in all experiments up TO the begin
ming of the civil war, and 1t was really not
until 1863 that movable or fixed isolated
The Confederate torpedoes were usually
made of copper and filled with powder,
varying i'm weights, according TO circum-
stances of employment. from fifty to one
hundred and fifty pounds. These were car
ried spars attached to ships or boats,
were anchored on the bottom, or were sent
drifting singly or in pairs, connected by
fitted were generally of the percussion type,
and illuminate of mercury entered largely
into their composition.
The Housatonic was destroyed by a sub