Southern Historical Society Papers

Our Torpedo Boat — The Original David, Constructed for the Confederate Navy

Volume XXIX, 1901, pages 292–295

The building of the first David at Charleston, her attack on the New Ironsides, and what became of her.

Cite as

“Our Torpedo Boat — The Original David, Constructed for the Confederate Navy,” Southern Historical Society Papers 29 (1901): 292–95.

The page in the scanned volume The whole volume at the Internet Archive

Published: 1901
Volume: 29
Pages: 292–295
Author: unsigned

OUR TORPEDO BOAT.

The Original David, Constructed for the Confederate Navy.

SOLD FOR JUNK.

Its Counterpart Sunk the Housatonic off Charleston Harbor in 1864 Fatal Experiments With the Queen Craft— How It Was Submerged.

A relic of great historical value was recently allowed to fall to pieces under the junk dealer's hammer and was carted away like so much scrap iron from the old Spanish fort, a few miles back of New Orleans, where it had stood for years a reminder of one of the forlornest hopes upon which man ever ventured.

It was the original David, a counterpart of the one that sunk the Housatonic off Charleston harbor February 17, 1864. It was being secretly constructed out at the fort when New Orleans fell, and upon the occupation of the city by the Federal forces, to save the design, it was rolled into a canal near by. There it remained for years after the war, for its builders and all who knew of it went down with its successor. Years after, when the canal was being dredged, the hulk was found, raised, and set upon the fort.

A QUEER CRAFT.

Although this queer craft never itself played any part in the war, it was the first of a type which, in the Holland submarines, now gathered by the government into a little fleet, bids fair to revolutionize modern naval warfare. From the plans tested in its construction was built the David that immolated its own crew in destroying its enemy. There was not in naval history another example of career so disastrous and tragic as that of the David. Four crews went down with it in trial trips, and it lost its fifth when it was itself involved in the destruction of its first and last intended victim.

When the original submarine was tipped into the canal in 1862, her designers already had in mind the construction of a duplicate craft. Working from plans of the sunken ship, they built in Mobile in 1863 the famous and ill-fated David. This name was given to it because

it was expected to destroy the Goliaths of the Union fleet. The original David, from which its successor differed only in minor details, was cigar shaped, and resembled in general design the Holland submarines of the twentieth century. It had a conning tower, which, when the boat floated, was about all that appeared. The boat was about thirty-five feet long and built of sheet iron. Its principal differences from the modern submarine, those which made it imperfect and manageable only under the most favorable circumstances, were these:

HOW IT WAS SUBMERGED.

The Holland is always buoyant; it is submerged by deflecting a horizontal rudder when the boat is under way, not by filling it to a weight a little more than that of the displaced water. The David was submerged by filling, and possessed only an upright rudder. In case of an accident to the Holland' s machinery the boat will float to the top. It was vice versa with the David. The Holla?id is run by gasoline when on the surface and electricity when beneath. The propeller wheel of the David was turned by eight men. The Holland lies steady in the water. It is perfect ballasted when water is taken into the tanks, because they hold just the required amount to bring the boat to "fighting weight " or "diving trim" and it cannot shift. The David was unstable in this respect. The Holland fires the torpedoes after a moment's rise to the surface, when within range, to sight the vessel to be destroyed and get a direct line upon her. The David dragged her torpedo after her under the keel of the vessel, and it was exploded by the knock, when it struck.

The original David was designed for coast and river work in the gulf and Mississippi river. When it was put out of commission and the second boat was finished the ships of the North were blockading the principal Southern ports, and there was a brilliant opportunity for a submarine torpedo-boat to do the most effective kind of work, if she proved manageable. This she did not do. On her trial trip she sank before her proper time, and did not come up again. Her crew of ten men were suffocated. She was raised, and Lieutenant Payne, of the Confederate navy, volunteered to take command of her. In 1864 he took her to Charleston to undertake operations against the powerful blockading fleet. As she was nearing Charleston, a passing steamer sent its swells over her. Too heavy to riseto the waves, she rolled like a waterlogged tree trunk, and the wash went over her, pouring down her open hatch and quickly carrying

her to the bottom, with her crew, Lieutenant Payne, who was in the conning tower, crawled out and swam until a boat from the steamer which had caused the disaster rescued him. Again she was raised and again Lieutenant Payne took command. With his crew of ten men he made ready one evening to set out from Fort Sumpter upon an offensive expedition against the Union fleet, when, for some unknown reason, the David "turned turtle," taking to the bottom this time eight of her ten men, two of the seamen escaping with the commander. That was enough for Lieutenant Payne; he gave up submarine naval manoeuvres.

In spite of the disastrous succession of accidents, one man maintained his faith in the David. That man was one of the designers, Mr. Aunley. He had the vessel raised, collected a crew, not without difficulty, and taking his craft up the Stone river, made several trials which seemed to justify his confidence. Then there came a day when the David went out and did not come back. Divers found her with her nose stuck in the mud. Mr. Aunley and his ten men were suffocated. For some time she lay at the bottom of the river, but another daring experimenter was found who undertook to navigate her successfully if she were raised. Raised she was, and the new commander might have made good his promises had he not attempted to show that he could take her under a schooner and up on the other side, in which experiment she fouled the cable and suffocated another crew.

A " WATER COFFIN."

It speaks volumes for the daring of the southern naval men that any could be found to venture upon the forlorn hope after this. Captain J. F. Carlson and Lieutenant George E. Dixon persuaded the authorities to raise the "water coffin," as the David had been gloomily nicknamed, and to let them take it out with the purpose of torpedoing the Hotisatonic of the union fleet. Only five men could be found who were willing to take so desperate a chance. At dusk of a still evening, February 17, 1864, the man-propelled craft made her way out of the harbor. She successfully passed the lines of picket craft around the inner squadron and made for the Housatonic, the Goliath of the outer line of the blockade. She was sighted at 8:45 by the officer of the deck on the Housato7iic and hailed. She was running on the top of the water and burning no lights, and when discovered was but 200 yards away. She did not reply, but came on. A call to quarters was sounded. It was too late; the

David was inside the range of the Housatonic s guns. The men opened fire with pistols and rifles, but on came the curious little cylinder unaffected. She dove and passed nearly under the vessel's stern, drawing her torpedo after her. It struck the big ship almost amidships. Simultaneously came the explosion. The Housatojiic reeled and in a few moments lunged forward and sank bow first. Most of the officers and crew saved themselves by climbing into the rigging, from which they were taken by the small boats of the other vessels. The David had dived her last. She never came to the surface. After the war, when the wrecks off Charleston were being removed, the David was discovered at the bottom, not ioo feet away from her victim. All of her men were at their stations.

No other submarines were attempted by the Confederacy. The original David, just destroyed, was, therefore, unique, the only existing specimen of a type which has developed into such wonderworking craft as the modern submarines. All the maritime world is reckoning with them now. France is building a flotilla of them. Italy and Greece have some under construction. Germany, Russia, and Japan are experimenting with them, England has five; we have seven. Soon every navy in the world will have them. It might have been worth while for our navy to preserve this first effective type as a historical memento, rather than let it be sold for old iron.

Editorial notes

Statements in this article that are wrong, doubtful, or worth setting beside another account. The article’s own text is left as printed.

“It was the original David, a counterpart of the one that sunk the Housatonic off Charleston harbor February 17, 1864.”
The mistake the whole article is built on. The boat that sank the Housatonic was the H. L. Hunley, a hand-cranked submarine. The Davids were a different thing altogether — low, cigar-shaped, steam-driven semi-submersibles that ran awash with a spar torpedo, and the first of them attacked the New Ironsides off Morris Island on 5 October 1863 without sinking her. The newspaper has merged the two classes, and everything that follows inherits the error. W. A. Alexander, who built the Hunley and dived in her, corrects all of this in volume 30, page 164 of these same Papers, printed a year later.
“It was being secretly constructed out at the fort when New Orleans fell”
The New Orleans boat was built in the New basin, not at Spanish Fort, by Horace L. Hunley, James McClintock and Baxter Watson, and was scuttled when the city fell in April 1862 — Alexander says so at volume 30, page 164. It is generally called the Pioneer.
“A relic of great historical value was recently allowed to fall to pieces under the junk dealer's hammer and was carted away like so much scrap iron”
It was not. A Confederate submarine recovered from Bayou St. John survived and is held by the Louisiana State Museum. Whether that hull is the boat Hunley and McClintock built has been questioned since, but the report of its destruction in 1901 is wrong. **[Information unknown — verify before use]**
“the David that immolated its own crew in destroying its enemy. There was not in naval history another example of career so disastrous and tragic”
True of the Hunley, and the one thing in this article that is. She killed three crews in trials before the sortie that killed the fourth — thirteen men before the eight who went out on 17 February 1864, by the figures generally accepted.
“The David dragged her torpedo after her under the keel of the vessel, and it was exploded by the knock, when it struck.”
That was the first plan and it was abandoned. Alexander records that the towed torpedo kept overrunning the boat in any sea, and that a twenty-two-foot yellow-pine spar was rigged on the bow instead. The Hunley attacked the Housatonic with a spar torpedo, not a towed one.
“Her crew of ten men were suffocated.”
The boat carried a crew of nine at most — eight at the cranks and an officer forward. The figure of ten recurs three times in this article and is wrong every time.
“As she was nearing Charleston, a passing steamer sent its swells over her.”
The first Charleston loss, on 29 August 1863, happened at a wharf in the harbor while the boat was preparing to go out, not on passage to Charleston: she had come from Mobile by rail. Lieutenant John A. Payne, in the hatchway, got clear.
“That man was one of the designers, Mr. Aunley.”
Horace Lawson Hunley, whose name the boat carries. He drowned in her on 15 October 1863 with seven others, having opened his forward sea cock and lost his light — the reconstruction is Alexander's, from the position of the bodies, at volume 30, page 164.
“taking his craft up the Stone river, made several trials”
The Stono, and it is the wrong water: Hunley's practice and his death were in Charleston harbor. The Stono was Federal-held below Legare's Point for most of the war, as the journal at volume 8, page 542 shows.
“Captain J. F. Carlson and Lieutenant George E. Dixon persuaded the authorities to raise the "water coffin"”
It was Dixon and W. A. Alexander, both lieutenants of the Twenty-first Alabama, who asked Beauregard for the boat, raised her and took her over — Alexander gives the whole exchange, including the order that every volunteer be told first that she had already drowned three crews. **[Information unknown — verify before use]** as to who "Captain J. F. Carlson" is meant to be.
“Only five men could be found who were willing to take so desperate a chance.”
Eight men went out on 17 February 1864, Dixon among them. The crew came from the receiving ship Indian Chief, with two men found from the German Artillery at the last moment to replace Alexander, who had been ordered to Mobile on 5 February. All eight were recovered with the boat in 2000.
“It struck the big ship almost amidships. Simultaneously came the explosion. The Housatojiic reeled and in a few moments lunged forward and sank bow first.”
The torpedo struck well aft, on the starboard side forward of the mizzenmast and close to the after magazine; the Housatonic settled by the stern in shoal water, and most of her people got into the rigging. Alexander, working from the ship's own officer's account in the Army and Navy Journal, says the stern was blown off.
“After the war, when the wrecks off Charleston were being removed, the David was discovered at the bottom, not ioo feet away from her victim. All of her men were at their stations.”
The postwar divers were mistaken, and their report was believed for more than a century — Alexander accepted it too. The Hunley was not alongside the wreck. She was found in 1995 about three hundred metres seaward of the Housatonic, raised on 8 August 2000, and did have all eight of her crew at their stations. The last clause is right by accident.
“No other submarines were attempted by the Confederacy.”
Flatly wrong, and Alexander's narrative in volume 30 disposes of it: the same three men built one boat at New Orleans and a second at Mobile before the Hunley, and the Mobile boat was lost off Fort Morgan. Others were built or begun at Richmond, Mobile, Shreveport and Houston.