SUBMARINES AND TORPEDO BOATS. BY C. L, STANTON, LIEUTENANT C. S. N.
The first submarine craft in the world worthy of the name and, so far as I know, the only one that ever destroyed a vessel of war was the Fishboat, which operated in Charleston Harbor. John A. Payne, her first commander, was a lieutenant on the Chicora, and her first volunteer crew were seamen from the vessel, nine in all, including the commanding officer. The boat was constructed at Mobile and was received at Charleston in February, 1864. It was built of boiler iron, about thirty feet in length, five feet in diameter, had movable flanges, or fins, on the side, and had a propeller that was worked by hand from the inside. These fins, or wings, were depressed for diving and elevated when it was desired to come to the-surface. There were two manheads, one forward and the other aft, through which entrance was had to the interior. A torpedo, a copper cylinder filled with powder and provided with sensitive glass tubes, was carried on a staft projecting from the bow.
It has been stated that the met with disaster six times and destroyed fifty lives. If my memory is not at fault, she sank in Charleston Harbor only three times and drowned or suffocated twenty-five men. In the first disaster seven were drowned, in the second nine were suffocated, and in the third nine more met the same fate.
One day when Lieutenant Payne, my friend and shipmate, was aboard the Chicora I arranged to go down under the water with him; but as the boat was obliged to leave before my watch on deck was over, Lieut. Charles H. Hooker took my place. She dived about the harbor successfully for an hour or two and finally went over to Fort Johnson, where the little steamer Etiwan was lying alongside the wharf. She fastened to her side with a light line with the fins in position for diving. Both manheads were open. Payne was standing on top of the Fishboat, and Lieutenant Hooker's body was halfway through the forward manhole, when the steamer started to move away from the wharf. The line by which the boat was attached to the steamer snapped, and she went to the bottom in five fathoms of water like a lump of lead. Payne escaped by jumping aboard the Etiwan, while Hooker was carried down with the boat, the manhead closing down as he struggled through the opening and crushing his foot. He told me afterwards that he had to stoop down and raise the manhead to release the imprisoned foot. He came to the surface in an exhausted condition and was picked up by one of the Chicora's boats. The crew of seven men were drowned. Later the ill-fated-boat was raised, the bodies taken out, and another volunteer crew obtained from the Chicora, Charleston, and Palmetto State, of the Charleston Squadron.
Another day I happened to be aboard the receiving ship Indian Chief on some temporary duty off Adger's Wharf when the Fishboat was observed approaching the vessel on the starboard side and when within a biscuit throw disappeared and successfully dived under the ship, reappearing on the port side a short distance from the docks. Presently she dived again, and when, after half an hour had elapsed, she failed to come to the surface we knew the men in her were dead. Divers were sent down immediately to search for her, and when she was located it was found that in moving along the bottom of the bay her propeller had caught a piece of old hemp cable and jammed it so that it was impossible to move it from the inside, and thus the imprisoned crew of nine men were suffocated. When the bodies were removed, one of
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the men was found on his knees under the manhead wit a piece of candle in his hand, evidently trying to open it to admit water to drown them and end their suffering, for they could have entertained no hope of escape with five o six fathoms of water above them.
The boat was again raised and placed under command of Lieutenant Dixon, of Alabama, with a volunteer crew from the army and the ships. She was adjusted to float at the surface with her manheads just out of water and was pro: vided with an air pump to be used to supply air when the manholes were closed. On the 17th of February, about nine o'clock at night, with all her crew aboard, nine men in all she came alongside the Chicora. We were told that she was" going outside of Fort Sumter that night to sink the sloop of war Housatonic, which was in the habit of anchoring after dark in the channel close in shore to prevent the arrival and departure of blockade runners. The boat failed to return, but early the next morning when day broke we could see the masts of the Housatonic projecting from the water and the rigging filled with her men, who were a few hours later re=_ moved by boats from the Federal blockading fleet. The little boat was never seen again until after the war closed, whe the Housatonic was raised to clear the channel, and it was found near her with the bow pointing toward the ship. |
Lieutenant Payne, although a willing volunteer for this" dangerous service, never at any time had faith in the success of the enterprise. I heard him say time and again that if he struck a vessel with the torpedo staff projecting horizontally he feared the boat would enter the hole made by the explosion in the ship's side, and the machinery would not be powerful enough to back the boat out before it was carried down by the wreck. His idea was that if the torpedo staff was lowered to an angle of forty-five degrees when the ship was_ struck the torpedo would explode near the keel, and the Fish boat's bow, striking the solid planking of the ship, would re coil sufficiently to make the machinery effective in backing" out of danger of being drawn down by the wreck. I have always felt very certain that the torpedo staff was in this position when the Housatonic was struck. I have seen it stated that the Fishboat dived under the Housatonic and dragged a floating torpedo after it. This is disproved by the fact that the boat was found after the war with her bow pointing toward the ship and not away from it, as must have been the case if it had dived under the vessel. Besides, when the boat lay alongside the Chicora on the night of the 14th of February, I examined it closely, and I am quite positive there was no floating torpedo attachment. And then the boat was adjusted to float on the surface and not for diving. The matter of dragging the torpedo was discussed by the navy, and it was generally conceded a very doubtful expedient, as the anchorage where the Housatonic lay was a shallow one, and it was not probable that there would be enough water under her keel to allow the Fishboat to pass safely. f
In some of the accounts I have read of the Fishboat it has been styled the David. This is an error. The David was an entirely different vessel. It was constructed of wood, about — the length and diameter of the Fishboat, and was propelled by steam. This was the craft that, manned by Lieut. W. 4 Glassell, Engineer C. S. Toombs, and Pilot Cannon, attempt unsuccessfully to sink the Ironsides. The torpedo, which carried on a horizontal staff, was exploded against her throwing up a column of water that fell on the David extinguished the fire under the boiler. The marines on
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deck of the Ironsides opened on the David with musketry. Glassell and Cannon dropped into the sea and were made prisoners by the Ironsides' boats, while Toombs, who could not swim, clung to the David and drifted away in the darkness, relighted the fire, and steered back into the harbor. I happened to be the officer of the deck on the Chicora for the midwatch, and at about four bells I recognized his light signal and hailed him. He answered that it was the torpedo boat David—he had sunk the Ironsides and Lieutenant Glassell and the pilot were lost. We believed it until the next morning, when the Ironsides was observed at her anchorage and apparently uninjured. Later we learned of the safety of Glassell and Cannon.