The Cigar Torpedo in the American War.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 142, 19 June 1886, Page 3

The Cigar Torpedo in the American War.

Moke than ono case of conspicuous daring on the part of tho Southern naval officers occurred during the war, while using most offectively what is called the cigar torpedo boat. This was a craft which, when in motion, was entirely immersed, except tho top of the funnel, and might also be called a submarine torpedo. I romember on one occasion during the war, when I was at Charleston.meeting in a coffee room at that place a young naval officer (a Southorner), with whom I got into aonversation. He told me that that night he was going to sink a Northern man^of war wh'ch was blockading the port, and invited me to see him off. I accompanied him down to the cigar boat, as he called it, and found that abe was a vessel about forty feet long, shaped like a cigar, on tbe bow of which was placed a torpedo. On his stepping on board with his crow of four men, his boat was immersed till nothing but a small piece of funnel was visible. He moved off into the darkness at no great speed—say at about five miles an hour. The next evening,on visiting the coffee house, I found my friend sitting quietly smoking bis pipe. He told mo that he had succeeded in making a hole in the frigate which he had attacked, which vessel could, in fact, be seen lying in shallow water, some seven miles off, careened over to repair damages. But he said that, on tho concussion made by firing the torgedo, the water had rushed in through the hatches of his boat, and she had sunk to tho bottom. All his men were drowned. He said that he didn'tknow how he escaped himself, but he fancied he came through the hatches, as he found himself floatiug about, and swam on shore. This affair was officially reported, by the American blockading squadron, corroborating tho fact of tho injury done to the frigate, and stating that the torpedo boat was got up, with four dead bodies in her hold.-From "The Torpedo Scare," in " Blackwood's Magazine."