Year: 1870

from the mOmeQG Gu6 uabCH was
closed the men fastened in their liv
ing tomb inhaled and exhaled con-
tinuously the atmosphere which was
enclosed with them.


The plan of attack proposed by
the inventors was to dive beneath
the keel of an enemy's ship, hauling
the torpedo after her. Its triggers
or sensitive primers would thus press
against the ships bottom: explode
the torpedo and inevitably sink the
ship.


Not anticipating an early oppor-
tunity Of using this dangerous YES
sci against the fleet Of Farragut.
General Maury sent her by rail to
General Beauregard at Charleston,
believing the waters Of that harbor
better suited to her peculiar con
struction, while in the Ironsides, or
some other gigantic war ship then
attacking Charleston, might be found
an object worth the great risk to
which her crew was exposed in any
enterprise they might undertake in
her.


General Beauregard changed the
arrangement of the torpedo by fast
ening it to the bow. Its front was
terminated by sharp and barbed
lance-head, so that when the boat
was driven end on against q ships
sides, the lance head would be forced
deep into the timbers, below the
water-line and would fasten the tor
pedo firmly against the ship. Then
the torpedo boat would back off and
explode it by a lanyard.


General Beauregard's call upon
the Confederate feet for volunteers
to man this dangerous craft was
promptly answered by Lieutenant
Payne, Virginian, and eight sailors.
They were soon ready for action, and
on the evening set for their
expedition, the last preparation
had been made.


The torpedo boat was lying along,
side the steamer flom which the
crew had embarked; she was sub
merged till the combing of her hatch
alone was visible above the water.
Her commander, Payne, was stand
ing in hatchway, in the act of order
ing her to be cast off, when the swell
of passing steamer rolled over her
and sunk her instantly, with her
eight men, in several fathOms Of
water. Lieut.. Payne sprang out of
the hatchway as the boat sank from
under him, and he alone was left
alive.


In a few days she was raised and
again made ready for service. Again
Payne volunteered, and eight men
with him.


The embarkation for their second
attempt was made from Fort Sum
ter, and as before, all having been
made ready, Payne standing at his
post in hatchway, ordered the hs|ser
to be cut off-when the boat careen-
ed and sank instantly. Payne sprang
out; two men followed him; the
other six went down in the boat and
perished.


Again the boat was raised and
made ready for action, aud her
owner Capt. Hundley, took her for
an experimental trip into the Stone
river, where, after going through her
usual evolutions, she dived in deep
water and for hours, and for days,
the return of poor Hundley and his
crew was watched for and looked for
in vain.


After near a weeks search she was
found inelining at an angle of forty
degree; her nozzle was driven deep
into the soft mud Of the bottom.
Her crew of nine dead men were
standing, sitting, lying about her
hold asphyxiated. Hundley was
standing dead at his post, a candle
| in one hand, while the other had
grown stiff with death in his vain ef-
forts to unclamp the hatch. Others
had been working at the keys Of the
ballast. but the inclination at which
the boat had gone down had jammed
the KEYS so that the men could not
cast off the heavy weight which held
him down. Their deaths had been
hard and lingering.


Again this fateful vessel was made
ready for action, and volunteers he
ing called for, Lieut.. Dixon, of the
Twenty-first Alabama Volunteers, a
native of Mobile, and eight men, vol
unteered to take her against the en-
emy.


The new and powerful war ship
Housatonic, was selected for the at
tack, and on a quiet night, the brav-
est crew set out from Charleston in
this terrible, nameless torpedo boat
that ever manned craft before
We all know the fate of the Housa
tonic, Brave Dixon guided the tor
pedo fairly against her, the explosion
tore up the great war ships sides


so that she went down with nearly
all her crew within two minutes.
, The torpedo vessel also disappear
ed forever from mortal view. Wheth
er she went down with her enemy
or whether she drifted out to sea t.
, bury her gallant dead, was neve


known and their fate was left till tn
great day when the sea shall give VI
its dead.


But within a few weeks past di
verse in submarine amor have Yisi-
ted the wreck of the HousatOnic
and they have found the little tor
pedo vessel lying by her huge vic
: tim, and within her are the bones O
: the most devoted and daring mel
who ever went to war.


Virginia Democracy haven't for


gotten the old habits of the slav
| ..Aoo-oo-- The crsrsf -,o,ro,