Mobile Register
June 26, 1861
Page 2
SUBMARINE
WARFARE
Messrs. Editors: Excepting our
privateers the Confederate States have not a ship at sea. We may safely originate plans for blowing up
the vessels employed in blockading our ports, without danger of being “boisted by our own ____.”
Such
an attempt is not to be expected from Governmental Departments and Bureaus;
projectors, with their own “seething brains and shaping fantasies” are a terror
to them. Throughout our Southern
seaports, men of a mechanical turn and of the right spirit must go to work,
maturing the best plans for the destruction or the capture of every blockading
ship.
All
things invite the enterprise. From the
Chesapeake to the mouth of the Rio Grande, our coast is better fitted for submarine
warfare than any other in the world. It
has all been most minutely surveyed and mapped.
It has almost no tides, it has uniform currents, and a bottom always
sandy, seeming to invite adventurous feet to travel over it. It is possible “submarines” are now
traversing these sands, acquiring confidence in their new element and skill in
the use of their terrible engines of destruction. Experiments should be multiplied for fixing
upon the most effective form for the submarine shell, percussion cap for firing
the fuse, and especially the arrangements of the fatal wire—safe when not in
use, and inevitable when drawn upon and enemy.
All that one can do, we will do for the destruction of our invaders; but
we would rather capture them than kill them.
We will, as far as possible, heed the calls of humanity. If, in the course of a week or two, the
Niagara should see, by day, such a smoke rise nearby from the sea as she never
saw before, or by night, a rocket thrown by unseen hands, it will be an
invitation to her to come to an anchor under the guns of Ft. Morgan.
Even
before any “submarines” have been drilled, shells may easily be planted all
over the cruising grounds of the blockading fleets, which cannot be sailed over
without exploding them.
But
I would have every hostile keel chased from our coast by submarine
propellers. The locomotive Diving Bell
is well known. The new vessel must be
cigar shaped for speed—made of plate iron, joined without external rivet-heads;
about 80 feet long, with a central section of about 4 by 8 feet—driven by a
spiral propeller, a ____ ____, or, (far better) by a steam engine, occupying
the ____ part of the boat. When its
bottom is tight, the Torpedo boat takes the surface like any other boat, a part
of the top folding back. Closing its
top, it sinks on getting a prize fairly in range and within striking
distance. A harpoon point, easily
separated from the forward end of the boat after being driven into the enemy’s
side, (some ten feet under water) carries the wire that holds the shell. The shock of the attack disengages the shell
from the bottom of the boat and strikes the percussion cap for igniting the
half minute fuse. The air pump, the
inhalation tubes, the eye glasses, are already used. The new Aneroid Barometer, made for increased
pressure, will enable the adventurer easily to decide his exact distance below
the surface.
If
not tarnished with steam the torpedo boat should carry sail when on a
cruise. Two of them—each an outrigger to
the other—could spread so much ____ as to outsail all
competitors.
Such—in
briefest terms—are the efforts which skillful and patriotic men will
undoubtedly attempt forthwith. These outlines are freely given to our
enemies as well as friends—for in submarine warfare the invader has no resources.
Robert
Fulton failed in 1814, simply for the reason that he had neither friction
match, percussion cap nor safety fuse.
In the present state of the ____ ____ and the ____ sciences, it would be
a burning shame to the South if hostile ships should continue to venture upon
soundings near any of our harbors.
I
am preparing a detailed Memoir on Submarine Warfare, discussing matters not
proper to be spoken of here, illustrated with engravings. Copies of the pamphlets will be sent to the
Mayors and municipal authorities of Southern maritime cities.
Applications
from individuals must be made through the local authorities.
F.
G. SMITH
____,
Columbia, Tenn.
June
20, 1861
[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]
