Impressive addition to both threads, thanks.
Thanks! Just sharing a bit of the benefits from having been somewhat "on the inside"...
BTW & FWIW, we even had a forum participant in Poland, who decided to run a bunch of experiments on how different woods would work as "shear pins" for releasing the torpedo from the spar after impact. He had a couple of sections of pipe with a "sliding fit" through which he had drilled paired-up holes, and he would "pin" them together with various woods, soak the assembly in seawater, and then ram the end against a solid object while noting the shear performance.
IIRC, he determined that most hardwoods worked fine, (released cleanly) but that pine would swell and jam up the system. (Not a desirable performance feature, to say the least!) ;-)
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Not sure how much more remains of the forum files; I'll check...
One thing for sure: the proceedings of the Union Navy's Court of Inquiry (held after any sinking or other major incident) were extremely valuable sources of information about the attack itself -- testimony by surviving eyewitnesses on the Housatonic.