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Mines and Torpedoes
By
CHARLES H. HALL
Reprinted from April, 1917, issue of Sea Power
For Additional Copies of this Pamphlet No. 152, apply to the
NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES
S O U T H E R N B U I L D I N G , W A S H I N G T O N , D.
C.
Copyright, 1917, by the Sea Power Publishing Company
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THE NAVY LEAGUE
A SOCIETY TO H E L P INSURE T H E U N I T E D STATES
AGAINST INVASION
TH E Navy League is an association of people who wish to keep
war out of the United States and believe that the surest way to do
so is to maintain a navy so strong tha t no nation can get its
forces across the ocean to attack us. It has no connection with any
business or political organization of any kind and is neither
pro-anything nor anti-any thing, but just plain American.
The League was organized in 1903, and includes among its
membership Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Hon. Alton B. Parker, Cardinal
Gibbons, Bishop John N. McCormick, Jacob H. Schiff, Isaac N.
Seligman, Henry Watterson and Joseph H. Choate,
-and such women as Mrs. William Cumming Story, Mrs. George
Dewey, Mrs. Hugh L. Scott, Mrs. Gibson Fahnestock, Mrs. Emma Smith
DeVoe, Mrs. Genevieve Champ Clark Thomson, Miss Mabel P . Boardman
and Mrs. George Barnett. Its ac-counts are, and always have been,
open to inspection on proper application. _̂
NAVY LEAGUE OF T H E U N I T E D STATES SOUTHERN BUILDING,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
O F F I C E R S
GENERAL HORACE PORTER, Honorary President
ROBERT M. THOMPSON President HENRY H. WARD . . . . . . .
Vice-President ALBERT B. LAMBERT Vice-President H E N R Y B. JOY .
. . . . . . . Vice-President HERBERT L. SATTERLEE Counsel L E W I S
L. CLARKE Treasurer E. A. BENNETT . Assistant Treasurer
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Mines and Torpedoes By CHARLES H. HALL
They have developed from crude beginnings to the deadly weapons
of to-day
- p . ESTROYING the ene-I my by working from a
u •ik*| J distance is as old as the '" 'NuL history of warfare.
* ^ ^ 3 Catapult, cannon and
fire ship all embodied this idea and so we find
as early as the siege of Antwerp in 1585 that small boats were
stored with powder which was covered with heavy timbers and stones
and in-tended to be exploded close along-side of the enemy by a
slow burning fuse. In more modern times the ex-plosive charge was
packed in a smaller container and set adrift above the enemy's
ships. Bushnell, inventor of the first American submarine, is
credited with having devised the floating mines that were set
adrift in the Delaware River in January of 1778. The British held
Philadelphia and a number of their men-of-war were anchored in
front of the city. At the beginning of the ebb tide two boys in a
row boat picked up a small floating barrel. A few moments later
there was a tremendous explosion ; the barrel proved to be a
floating mine. The British seamen at once manned their guns and,
for the rest of the ebb, fired at every floating object in the
river. A contemporary Philadelphia paper comments sarcastically
upon this and mentions the alarm caused
when an old woman dropped a butter firkin overboard from one of
the wharves. Commodore John Barry was in charge of the arrangements
for this attack upon the enemy and Francis Hopkinson has celebrated
it in the "Battle of the Kegs." All sorts of rumors flew about the
waterfront, one of them being referred to by the poet as
follows:
"These kegs, I'm told, the rebels bold Packed up like pickled
herring,
And they've come down to attack the town
By this new means of ferrying."
The first electrical mines were used in England in 1839 to blow
up the wreck of the ship-of-the-line Royal George. In 1854 the
Russians used mechanically operated mines in the Baltic with
considerable success. In this country Colonel Samuel Colt had
experimented with electrically oper-ated mines as early as
1840.
Fulton developed mines to use with his submarine, but it was not
until our Civil War that we find them in extensive use. The
Confederates had practically no navy and the Federal naval forces
were extremely active. To deny access to rivers and ports Southern
engineers soon took up the submarine mine or the "torpedo" as it
was then called. In its crudest
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Mines and Torpedoes
form it was a large demijohn with a charge of ordinary gunpowder
and was ignited by a friction primer, a light cord leading to the
shore. The observer lay hidden close to the bank and, when he
thought the enemy's ship was over his mine, pulled the cord and an
explosion resulted. Beer barrels, vinegar kegs, etc., were used,
and later mines were made of sheet iron, tin or copper. The South
made very effective use of them and a num-ber of Federal ships were
destroyed. One of the first cases was in the Yazoo River when the
gunboat Cairo was sunk by mines made from demijohns. They were laid
by a Confederate naval officer who had formerly been in the United
States service, Isaac N. Brown. As he saw the Cairo go down he
de-scribed himself as feeling much as a
school boy might whose practical joke had taken a more serious
shape than he expected. Mines were used ex-tensively at the
entrance to Mobile Bay and the monitor Tecumseh was sunk, with most
of her crew, at the very commencement of the battle. The Hartford,
Farragut's flagship, drove ahead across the minefield, but though
she bumped several of them, they proved ineffective and failed to
explode. By this time Southern en-gineers had developed a mine
designed to explode when struck by a hostile vessel. Indeed, some
large mines were connected with the shore by insulated wires and
were to be dis-charged electrically. An old boiler, containing a
ton of powder, was planted off Charleston and the iron-clad New
Ironsides lav ovei it for more
Kadel and Herbert
THE TORPEDO IS A DELICATE PIECE OF MECHANISM AND REQUIRES
CAREFUL ADJUST-MENT TO SECURE ACCURACY.
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Mines and Torpedoes
THE U.S.S. SAN FRANCISCO WAS ORIGINALLY A CRUISER BUT IS NOW A
MINE DEPOT SHIP. HER STERN HAS BEEN CUT AWAY TO FACILITATE MINE
DROPPING.
than an hour while the Confederates tried vainly to explode the
charge.
Up to 1870 all submarine explosives were called torpedoes, but
after that date they were differentiated into tor-pedoes and mines,
the mine being without motive power. Mines are either electrical or
mechanical and may be set on the bottom, anchored at any depth
below the surface or arranged to float freely. They may be fired by
contact or at will from the shore. The former are called con-tact
mines and are dangerous to friend and foe alike. The latter are
observa-tion mines, are electrically fired, and may be rendered
practically harmless by breaking the circuit ashore.
Contact mines are designed to ex-plode in close proximity to the
vessel's hull. Ordinarily they are spherical in
shape, about 40 inches in diameter and contain 100 pounds of
guncotton, TNT., or other high explosive. The observation mine, on
the contrary, is meant to cripple a ship near by and usually has
about 500 pounds of ex-plosives. They are often cylindrical in
shape and about four feet in diameter. They are frequently set in
groups of four, each group being joined to the same electric cable
which is led ashore. Two observers at different points watch an
approaching ship, each through a telescope swinging on a fixed
pivot. As the ship, as seen from one station, apparently passes
over a mine group the switch connected to the telescope closes the
firing circuit to that cluster of mines. No explo-sion takes place,
however, until the circuit is completed at the other
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Mines and Torpedoes Mines and Torpedoes
station when the ship is seen in the field of that observer's
telescope.
A contact mine may be fitted to work elec-trically. When a
vessel touches it a signal is made or a bell rung ashore. If the
vessel is hostile, closing a switch will complete the circuit and
explode the mine. Such mines may be ren-dered harmless by leav-ing
the switch open and the circuit broken.
Ground mines are set on the bottom and usu-ally contain very
large charges. They are, of course, electrically fired. Their
advantage is that they are far enough be-low the surface to avoid
damage or accidental explosion by a friendly vessel.
It is remarkable how much injury a mine will stand without
explosion. Some of those set in our harbors in the Spanish War were
dented and cut by passing vessels so that one won-dered why they
had not exploded.
Mines were used abroad in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and
the German coasts were liberally strewed with them. They were also
employed in the Russo-Turkish War in '78, and in our war with Spain
in 1898. Both sides used them off Port Arthur in 1904-05 with
considerable effect and floating contact mines were set adrift.
Many innocent vessels suffered, peace-
by Waterman. • j LAUNCHING A TORPEDO FROM THE DECK TUBES OF A
DESTROYER. THE LENGTH SLIDES IN A GROOVE IN THE TUBE AND SUPPORTS
THE MISSILE
AND THE EXHAUS f'-AT THE
ful traders and junks being destroyed two years after the close
of hostilities. These floating mines may be dropped during or just
before a naval battle, and the enemy coaxed to cross them in chase
of flying vessels or driven on to them. By the rules of the Hague
Conference, floating mines must be rendered ineffective an hour
after they are dropped, but this provision is apparently a dead
letter.
The original purpose of a mine field was to detain the enemy's
ships under the fire of a fort. Ships could
STUD ON TOP OF THE TORPEDO AT THE MIDDLE OF ITS UNTIL THE TAIL
IS CLEAR. NOTICE THE BLUNT NOSE
TAIL.
run by forts, as we proved in the Civil War, their heavy
batteries driving the gunners to shelter, but if mines were laid
well within range of the fort's guns, the ships could not run by
un-scathed and the fort could keep them at a distance.
Mines are laid by special vessels. Sometimes they are old
men-of-war with their sterns cut away and tracks fitted on deck,
fore and aft. A num-ber of mines, each with its anchor and distance
weight, are mounted on small trucks and are run aft and drop-
ped at intervals. The mine anchor is saucer shape with the
anchor cable on a reel in it. The "distance weight" is dropped over
first and a fixed amount of its cable —10, 15, or 20 feet—allowed
to unreel. The mine anchor is then dropped, and goes down,
unreeling the mine cable until the dis-tance weight touches bottom.
A brake locks the cable reel of the mine and the anchor sinks to
the bottom, pulling the mine down to the proper distance below the
surface.
The answer to the mine was formerly by the countermine — that
is, charges were ex-ploded near them and the mines set off by
concussion. T o - d a y , however, they are usu-ally found by
sweeping.
Two small vessels take the ends of a wire rope and steam ahead
at the proper distance apart, letting the rope or chain drag on the
bottom between them. The bight of the rope catches a mine and
brings it to the surface where it is usually destroyed by rifle
fire. Another method is to "creep" for the cables of observation
mines—that is, hooks are dragged along the bottom and the cables
pulled up and cut or followed until the mines are reached.
Bushnell and Fulton, who experi-
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Mines and Torpedoes
merited with the submarine boat, depended on the operator to
attach his torpedo to the bottom of the enemy's vessel. The next
step was taken during our Civil War, when the explosive charge was
placed on the end of a pole, pushed against the enemy's vessel and
fired by suitable
means. Cushing used such a spar tor-pedo when he sank the A
Ibemarle. He had to steer the boat, swing the spar into place,
attach the torpedo and pull the lanyard. The Confederate David that
blew up the Housatonic, also used a spar torpedo and the same
device was used in the attack on the U.S.S.
t'acn trnuiu iV erxis
HOISTING A TORPEDO OUT OF THE WATER AFTER A RUN. A SECOND ONE
FLOATS IN THE FOREGROUND. THE SHIP IS A FRENCH MAN-OF-WAR.
m
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Mines and Torpedoes
Courtesy Scientific American
THE BRITISH TRAWLER FLEET—STURDY VESSELS WITH SKILLED AND HARDY
CREWS-HAS DONE WONDERFUL WORK IN CLEARING OUT THE GERMAN MINE
FIELDS.
Memphis. The Navy Department built a torpedo launch, called the
Spuyten Duyvil, and also a little-known submersible named
Alligator. Neither of these got into action.
In the war between France and China, in 1884, the Chinese
warship Yang Woo was destroyed by a spar torpedo, and the weapon
remained a favorite in the United States Navy until the early
'80's.
Meanwhile, experiments were made abroad with the Harvey torpedo
which was towed at the end of a long line, the object being to drag
it across the bows of an enemy's vessel. The Sims-Edison and Lay
torpedoes were developed, one was a self-propelled device, and both
controlled from the shore. They were too slow and awk-ward and soon
became obsolete.
About 1864 an Englishman, named Whitehead, had an engineering
plant
at Fiume on the Adriatic. An Aus-trian naval officer, Captain
Lupius, came to him with a cigar-shaped de-vice carrying an
explosive charge, driven by clockwork and steered by a rope. The
apparatus was crude, but Whitehead improved it and in two years
brought out a torpedo that car-ried a charge of 18 pounds of
gun-cotton and had a speed of six knots for a short distance. On
this side of the Atlantic, Rear Admiral Howell de-veloped a torpedo
driven by a heavy flywheel, which was spun up to a high speed just
before launching. Its range was short, though the gyro-scopic
action of the flywheel kept it on a straight course. The Whitehead
tor-pedo of that date was most erratic in steering. Finally Ludwig
Obry, an Austrian engineer, added a small gyro-scope to the
steering gear of the Whitehead torpedo. This device was
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Mines and Torpedoes
tried by the Italian Navy about 1896 and revolutionized torpedo
construc-tion, increased range and accuracy being given.
Before this the automobile, loco-motive or fish torpedo, as it
was vari-ously called, had scored very few successes. It had been
tried in the fight between the British ship Shah and the Peruvian
Huascar and' had failed; also in the Russo-Turkish war in '77
without result, though the Rus-sians in '78 succeeded in sinking a
Turkish revenue cutter off Batoum. In 1891 the Blanco Encalada was
sunk in Caldera Bay, Chile, by the torpedo boats Almirante Lynch
and Almirante Condell. They fired several torpedoes at short range
before they succeeded in hitting the target. In the Brazilian
Revolution of 1894 the battleship Aquidaban was sunk in a night
attack by the torpedo boat Sampaio, though here again several
misses were scored.
In the Spanish War it was used but little and at Santiago the
dangers of the above water-tube were shown when a shell struck a
torpedo on the Oquendo and caused a fearful explosion. The Japanese
began their war by a torpedo attack on the Russian vessels in Port
Arthur.
A naval officer wrote in 1880: "When torpedoes can be discharged
from guns or tubes under water, tor-pedo ships for cruising on the
high seas will doubtless come into favor." How true a prophecy!
To-day all capital ships and many cruisers carry submerged tubes,
while scouts and destroyers depend on the deck tube.
The latest model torpedo is a cigar-shaped affair made of steel
and having rather a blunt nose. I t is 21 inches diameter, 1 7 ^
feet long and
weighs over 2,000 pounds. The head holds over 200 pounds of wet
gun-cotton and a detonating charge. It fired by a pin which is
driven against a detonator on striking the target. On this pin is
threaded a safety device like a tiny propeller which unscrews and
drops off after it has traveled a certain distance.
Collapsible "exercise heads" of the same weight as the war head
are used for practice.
Next to the head comes the air flask in which is stored air, the
motive power, compressed to over 2,200 pounds to the square inch.
In one with the air flask is the fuel and water compartment
containing alcohol and fresh water to be used in the super-heating
system for developing steam which, with the air, drives the engine
and works the various auxiliaries. This heating system has
increased the effective range greatly, for otherwise the expansion
of the air would chill it to a low temperature. In the after body,
which is cone-shaped, are two turbine engines, capable of
develop-ing nearly 200 horsepower. Here also are the lubricating
system, the steer-ing gear, the depth regulating device and the
position and duration locking mechanisms. Two propellers, rotat-ing
in opposite directions and turning 1,750 revolutions per minute are
mounted at the extreme after end and drive the weapon.
The torpedo is set to travel at a fixed distance below the
surface, vary-ing from zero to 25 feet. Should it go deeper than
wished, the pressure of the water, acting on a piston and re-sisted
by a spring, turns the hori-zontal rudders up. A pendulum,
how-ever, keeps it from going up at too
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Mines and Torpedoes
great an angle. The gyroscope is mounted on gimbals like a
compass and is spun at a high speed. Should the torpedo deviate
from a straight course, the gyro moves the steering engine, and
brings it back to the proper heading.- Indeed, the gyro may be set
in the desired direction and the torpedo fired more than 90 degrees
from its course, the gyro bringing it around and holding it in the
designed direction.
Large ships are fitted with under water broadside tubes. Before
the torpedo is fired a "spoon" is run out and carries the torpedo
clear of the ship's side. Modern submarines have four bow
tubes.
Our latest destroyers have four triple tubes, three tubes being
mounted together on turn tables on deck. The pointer sits in a
bucket seat on top of the tube with the direct-ing gear in front of
him. He must allow for the speed and course of his own vessel and
also of the enemy's.
A torpedo is expelled from its tube by compressed air. The
forward end
of the tube is cut away on the bottom and has a groove inside
along the top. A stud on the torpedo travels in this groove and the
tail is clear of the tube before it drops. A lever is tripped by a
stud on the tube, igniting the heat-ing device, and another lever,
tripped when striking the water, starts the engines.
The range of the modern torpedo is about 10,000 yards and its
speed at the beginning of the run is over 40 knots. The cost is
about $7,500 each.
One field of torpedo warfare that has proved fascinating to the
inventor covers the distant control of the weapon. One device
governs it by sound, the missile being drawn toward the enemy by
the noise of its machin-ery. Another, with a surface float, will
follow a bright light—a search light leading it to its goal. A
still more promising field seems to be that of wireless control,
and some remark-able feats have been performed with a motor boat as
well as with tor-pedoes by an operator on the shore.
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