Not sure how well they understood the incompressibility physics of water-tamped explosions, but I do know that they always planned to implant their "spar" torpedoes well below the waterline. That is, after they abandoned their first approach of towing a floating contact torpedo behind them, and dragging it under the target vessel.
When they got in a strong following current/wind situation and the torpedo almost caught up with them, the rope tangled in their propeller, and they almost blew themselves up, they abandoned that scheme as a bad idea!
I intend to do further research on the semi-submersible steam-powered "David" class Confederate torpedo boats that also operated out of Charleston Harbor:
According to Ragan, it was the "David" boats' crews who recommended the vertically-pivoting "Y-yoke" torpedo mounting (shown in the above drawing) to the Hunley's officers. (Recommendation made after Gen, Buregard forbade Dixon's crew to attack submerged...)
Somewhere in the forum files there is/was a small, enhanced and annotated photo of an abandoned "David" grounded and listed over at low tide -- with the "Y-yoke" visible... Maybe I can recover it.
Here's the photo online:
If you examine the bow closely, you can see the Y-yoke mounted torpedo spar...
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BTW, you have FReepmail...
