1863Torpedoes
Orders for the boats: torpedo them, then board them
Two weeks before Du Pont’s attack, Lieutenant Webb of the Confederate navy issued instructions for a boat expedition against the expected ironclads: select the coolest men to discharge the torpedoes; should the ironclads pass the batteries, destroy them by torpedo, and failing that, board them. “After the first attack is made confusion in some degree may follow, when, I trust, your own judgment may be equal to the contest.”
Official Records of the Navies, Series I, Vol. 13