Missing view port muddies long-held theory of Hunley's disappearance

Island Packet ^ | December 28, 2005 | JOHN C. DRAKE,

[SAMWolf]

Thanks PE. I see the media still doesn't do research when reporting. The Hunley didn't "fire a torpedo" it had a spar torpedo.

A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to wooden hulls. A fuze could then be used to detonate it.

The extremely close range required to use spar torpedoes was a major limitation. The perfection of the self propelled torpedo rendered the spar torpedo obsolete. It was used in the second half of the 19th century.

The most famous use of a spar torpedo was on the Confederate submarine Hunley, which managed to sink the Union screw sloop USS Housatonic in 1864, although the Hunley was lost.

On October 27, 1864, Lieutenant Cushing employed a spar torpedo to sink the Confederate armor-clad ram Albemarle. Because the Confederate navy was tiny, the sinking of the Albemarle was the Union navy's only successful sinking of a Confederate vessel by torpedo. Lieutenant Cushing employed a spar torpedo designed by John Lay.

Spar torpedoes were also used on small wooden launches in the late 19th century, although they were not very useful weapons. The locomotive torpedo (what we think of today as a torpedo) replaced the spar torpedo as a weapon for submarines and small boats in the 1870s.

[U S Army EOD]

Good point.

[Professional Engineer]

This brings a whole new persective to "Ramming Speed!".

[PhilDragoo]

Alright, reporters, this is a spar torpedo--it is not fired; it is affixed with the barb and detonated by lanyard.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"Fired a torpedo?"

LOL. You have to love reporters.

Michael Frazier

[brazzaville]

Good morning.

Neither the the Housatonic nor the Hunley would necessarily have gone straight down after being holed, and this could account for the locations of the hulks. I do think you are right, though.

Those were brave men in the Hunley, knowing as they did the fate of everyone else who sailed the boat.

Michael Frazier

[Stonewall Jackson]

Don't forget that during the Civil War, naval mines were called torpedoes. So logically, another name for a spar torpedo would be a limpet mine.

Farragut's famous line "D*** the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" deals with the minefield that blocked the entrance to Mobile Bay, not a torpedo attack like most people envision.

[U S Army EOD]

The neatest one I ever saw was a river mine. It had a floater above it with graphels that would grab anchor chains or whatever as it floated down stream.

Once it became attached, there was an impeller on it that would turn with the current. This would inturn start winding a striker back that would then release and fire the mine. Pretty good imagination for whoever dreamed that one up.

The limpet mine was attached to a ship's hull by magnets by a UDT man. It usually had a chemical time device but would explode if someone tried to remove it. I think the British came up with that one. The Germans and Italians had something simular.