Part 1

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A Brief Sketch of the Work

of

MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY

During the War 1861-1865

BY HIS SON

RICHARD L. MAURY

RICHMOND

Richmond

WHITTET & SHEPPERSON

1915

COPYRIGHTED, 1915, BY

KATHERINE C. STILES

INTRODUCTION

When I took charge of the Georgia Room, in the Confederate Museum, in Richmond, Virginia in 1897, I found among the De Renne collection an engraving of the pleasant, intellectual face of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, so I went to his son, Colonel Richard L. Maury, who had been with his father in all his work here, and urged him to write the history of it, while memory, papers and books could be referred to; this carefully written, accurate paper was the result.

At one time, when Commodore Maury was very sick, he asked one of his daughters to get the Bible and read to him. She chose Psalm 8, the eighth verse of which speaks of "whatsoever walketh through the paths of the sea," he repeated "the paths of the sea, the paths of the sea, if God says the paths of the sea, they are there, and if I ever get out of this bed I will find them."

He did begin his deep sea soundings as soon as he was strong enough, and found that two ridges extended from the New York coast to England, so he made charts for ships to sail over one path to England and return over the other.

The proceeds from the sale of this little pamphlet will be used as the beginning of a fund for the erection of a monument to Commodore Maury in Richmond.

KATHERINE C. STILES.

TORPEDOES

Torpedoes as effective weapons in actual war were first utilized by the Confederate navy, and Captain Matthew F. Maury introduced them into that service, and continually improved and perfected their use until they had become the mighty engine of modern warfare and revolutionized the art of coast and harbour defense. He, it was, who in 1861 mined James River, who, in person commanded the first attack with torpedoes upon the Federal fleet in Hampton Roads, and it was the development and improvement of this plan of defense which held the enemy's ships throughout the South at bay, and caused the loss of fifty-eight of the ships, and the Secretary of the United States Navy to report to Congress in 1865 that the Confederates had destroyed with their torpedoes more vessels than were lost from all other causes combined. Their use was soon extended from James River to the other Southern waters by eleven young naval officers, active and alert, who planted, directed and exploded torpedoes wherever there occurred favorable opportunity, and with a daring and coolness never surpassed; officers whose ability was abundantly shown by the remarkable inertness of the United States Navy after they had left that service in response to the call of their States to come and help protect their invasion.

Hardly had Captain Maury arrived in Richmond than his active mind was directed to the problem of protecting the Southern coasts. The South had not a single vessel of war, and but scanty means of making, equipping or manning one; the North had all the old navy fully armed and equipped, with unlimited means for making more.

Penetrated as the country is by innumerable navigable waters, and save at the entrance of a few of her largest rivers, altogether unfortified, he urged that the only available defense was to mine the channel ways with torpedoes, floating and fixed, which should be exploded by contact or by electricity, when the enemy attempted to pass. At that time there was nothing save a few shore batteries to prevent any ship whose captain was bold enough to run past their fires from ascending James River to Richmond, or from reaching any other maritime town in the South. Fortunately there were but few bold enough for the attempt.

In the beginning there was much prejudice against this mode of warfare, which, notwithstanding, has since, under Captain Maury's instruction, become the chief reliance of most maritime nations. It was considered uncivilized warfare thus to attack and destroy an unsuspecting enemy, and the United States, and many of her naval officers were specially loud in their denunciations of those who resorted to it. There was official apathy too, and opposition of friends, but regardless of such, he proceeded to experiment and demonstrate, and with such success that in time the nations of Europe became his pupils, and there were hosts of followers and fellow-workers at home, and the Confederate Congress appropriated six millions of dollars for torpedoes.

His initial experiments to explode minute charges of powder under water, were made with an ordinary tub in his chamber at the house of his cousin, Robert H. Maury, a few doors from the Museum in Richmond, Va. The tanks for actual use were made at the Tredegar Works, and at the works of Talbott and Son on Cary Street; the batteries were loaned by the Richmond Medical College, which also freely tendered the use of its laboratory. In the early summer of 1861 the Secretary of the Navy, the Governor of Virginia, the chairman of the Committee of Naval Affairs, and other prominent officials were asked by him to witness a trial and an explosion of torpedoes in James River at Rocketts.

The torpedoes were composed of two small kegs of rifle powder, weighted to sink a few feet below the surface. They were fitted with hair triggers and friction primers, and thirty feet of lanyard attached to the triggers connected the keys. When in use they were to be set afloat in the channel way as near as possible to a vessel and to drift down with the current until the connecting lanyard fouled the anchor chain, or the bow of the vessel and the kegs swung around against her side when the tightened lanyard would fire the trigger and cause the torpedo to explode. So the Patrick Henry's gig was borrowed, with a couple of sailors to pull, and the torpedo having been embarked, with the trigger at half-cock, Captain Maury and the writer got on board and were rowed out to the buoy just opposite where the James River Steamboat Company's wharf now is, where the invited spectators stood to witness the explosion. The triggers were then set, the kegs carefully lowered into the water, taking great care not to strain the lanyard, all was cast off, the boat pulled clear, and we waited to see the torpedo float down until the buoy was reached, the lanyard foul strain and explode the torpedo. But there was delay, the lanyard fouled the buoy all right, the kegs floated past and strained the lanyard, but there was no explosion. Impatient we backed water to the buoy and the writer leaned over the stern and caught the lanyard to give the necessary pull, but in the very act the explosion took place, a column of water went up twenty feet or more, and descending, gave us a good wetting and filled the surrounding water with stunned and dead fish. The officials on the wharf applauded and were convinced, and that the experiments might continue Governor Letcher loaned power, and shortly after the Naval Bureau of Coast, Harbour, and River Defense was organized with ample funds for the work, and the very best of intelligent and devoted young officers as assistants and an office was opened in Richmond at the corner of Ninth and Bank Streets, where Rueger's now is.

In a few months he had mined James River with fixed torpedoes to be exploded by electricity should the enemy attempt to pass, and a means thus indicated to protect the city. During the summer and fall attacks were made upon the Federal squadron at Fortress Monroe, under the personal command of Captain Maury from Norfolk. The first of these was early in July, 1861, from Seawell's Point, at the mouth of the James River, and was directed against two of the fleet there--the "Minnesota" and the "Roanoke." Friday and Saturday night he sent an officer in a boat to reconnoitre, but there was a steam picket on watch, Sunday as he was spying them through a glass, noting their relative positions, he saw the church flag on two of them, a white flag bearing a cross displayed, flying just a little above the ship ensign. When he thought that those men were worshipping God in sincerity and truth, and, no doubt, thinking themselves in the line of their duty, he could but feel for them when he remembered how soon he might be the means of sending many of them into eternity. That night the attacking party in five boats set off about ten o'clock. Captain Maury was in the first boat with the pilot and four oars. Each of the others manned by an officer and four men carried a magazine with thirty fathoms of rope attached. These magazines were oak casks of powder with a fuse in each. Two joined by the rope were stretching across the ebbtide and when directly ahead of the ships were let go, and floating down the rope caught across the cable, the torpedo would drift and the ship strain the trigger, ignite the fuse and explode. "The night was still, calm, clear, lovely." Thatcher's comet was flaming in the sky. We steered by it, pulling in the plane of its splendid train. All the noise and turmoil of the enemy's camp and fleet was hushed. They had no guard boats of any kind, and as with muffled oars we neared them we heard seven bells strike. After putting the torpedoes under one ship the boats that carried them went back, and Captain Maury with the other two, planted the other torpedoes. They then rowed away and waited, but the explosion did not come and the enemy never knew of the attempt. Lieut. R. D. Minor, one of his skilful and daring assistants, commanded the second expedition which he thus describes:

C. S. S. Patrick Henry,

Mulberry Point, October 11th, 1861.

Sir,--Owing to an unexpected delay in the completion of the magazine I was unable to leave Richmond before the morning of the 9th, and did not reach this ship until yesterday about 8 A.M. when I laid your plan of the intended attack on the United States ships at anchor off Newport News before Commander Tucker, who with Lieutenant Powell, the executive officer, placed every facility at my disposal for carrying it into execution. Acting Master Thomas L. Dornin and Midshipman Alexander M. Mason, having volunteered to accompany me, the evening was passed in preparing the magazine and in explaining in detail to the officers the manner of handling and working them. In filling the tanks I found that I would have 392 pounds to operate with, instead of 400, which I had calculated upon; and to insure them from sinking I had some cork attached to the buoys, which subsequently proved of great advantage. The day was a stormy one, with a fresh breeze from the northward with rain and mist well suited for our operations against the enemy. About sunset Commander Tucker got underway from his anchorage off this place, and with lights shaded steamed slowly down the river on a strong ebbtide till the ships were seen ahead of us, when we came to within a mile and a half of the point, dropping the anchor with a hawser bent on to it to prevent noise from the rattling of the chains. The boats were then lowered, the magazines carefully slung, buoys bent on at intervals of seven feet, and when all was ready the crews armed with cutlasses took their places, and were cautioned in a few words by me to keep silent and obey implicitly the officers. Acting Master Dornin with Midshipman Mason took the left side of the channel, while I took the right with Mr. Edward Moore as boatswain of the ship to pilot me. Pulling down the river some 600 or 700 yards the boats were then allowed to drift with the rapid ebbtide, while the end of the cork line was passed over to Mr. Dornin, and the line tightened by the boats pulling in opposite directions. The buoys were then thrown overboard, the guard lines on the triggers cut, the levers fitted and pinned, the trip line made fast to the bight at the end of the lever, the safety screws removed, the magazine carefully lowered in the water, where they were well supported by the buoys, the slack line (three fathoms of which was kept in hand for safety) thrown overboard, and all set adrift within 800 yards of the ship, and 400 yards of the battery on the bluff above the point. So near were we that voices were heard on the shore and Mr. Moore reported a boat about 100 yards off, which, however, I did not see, being too much engaged in preparing the magazine for its service. Pulling back a short distance and hearing no explosion we returned to the ship which we found cleared for action and ready to cover us in event of being attacked, and the boats had just been hoisted up when signal lights were observed flashing in the vicinity of the point with considerable rapidity, indicating a suspicion on the part of the enemy that an attack of some kind was intended. Leaving our anchorage, we steamed rapidly up the river and took up our former position off this place about 12:30 at night. On going to the crosstrees this morning two ships were seen at anchor off the point, and later in the day when seen from Warwick River, where Commander Tucker and I went to get a better view of them, they were apparently unharmed, and I concluded that the magazine could not have fouled them, though planted fairly and in good drifting distances and with an interval between of some 200 feet, perhaps somewhat less as the line became entangled slightly while playing out.

I have thus minutely described to you, sir, the whole operation, believing, as its originator, it would be interesting to you, and, perhaps, serve as a guide in the further prosecution of this mode of warfare.

I beg leave to return my sincere thanks to Commander Tucker, Lieutenant Powell and other officers and men of the "Patrick Henry," for their hearty co-operation, and I particularly desire to call your attention to the coolness and bravery of acting Master Dornin and Midshipman Mason, and the boat crews associated on duty with me.

I am, sir respectfully your obedient servant,

R. D. MINOR,

Lieutenant C. S. Navy.

Commander M. F. Maury, C. S. Navy,

Fredericksburg, Va.

The torpedoes used by Captain Maury in his attack upon the "Minnesota," at Fortress Monroe, and by Lieutenant Minor upon the "Congress," off Newport News, were as follows: They were in pairs connected by a span 500 feet long. The span was floated on the surface by corks, and the torpedo, containing 200 pounds of powder, also floated at a depth of twenty feet. Empty barregas, painted lead color, so as not readily to be seen, serving for the purpose.

The span was connected with a trigger in the head of each barrel, so set and arranged that when the torpedo being let go in a tideway under the bows and athwart the hawser had fouled, they would be drifted alongside, and so drifted would tauten the span and set off the fuse, which was driven precisely as a ten second shot fuse, only it was calculated to burn fifty-four seconds, because it could not be known exactly in which part of the sweep alongside the strain would be sufficient to set off the trigger. That they did not explode was attributed to the fact that the fuse would not burn under a pressure of twenty feet of water, which conjecture was confirmed by after experiments, when it was found that the fuse would very surely at a depth of fifteen feet but never at twenty. Sometime after these torpedoes were found down the bay by the enemy. Spans, barrels, barregas and carried to Washington--thus the enemy forewarned, forestalled further attempts of this character by dropping the end of his lower studding sail boom in the water every night, and anchoring boats, or beams ahead.

To obtain insulated wire, of which the South had none, an agent was sent secretly to New York, but without success, and as there was neither factory nor material for its manufacture in the Confederacy, the difficulties of preparing electrical torpedoes, to which Captain Maury attached the most importance and greatly preferred, seemed insuperable, until by a remarkable piece of good fortune, in the following spring, it happened that the enemy, attempting to lay across Chesapeake Bay were forced to abandon the attempt and left their wire to the mercy of the waves, which cast it upon the beach near Norfolk, where, by the kindness of a friend, it was secured for Captain Maury's use. With part of this he connected his mines in James River, below the obstructions, with the shore stations, which afterward destroyed the "Commodore Barney," and later the "Commodore Jones," and with part enabled other Southern ports to be similarly protected.

Of his James River torpedoes, Captain Maury thus reported to the Secretary of the Navy:

Richmond, June 19th, 1862.

Sir,--The James River is mined with fifteen tanks below the Iron Battery at Chaffin's Bluff. They are to be exploded by means of Electricity. Four of the tanks contain 160 pounds of powder, the eleven other hold 70 pounds. All are made of boiler plate.

They are arranged in rows, as per diagram, those of each row being thirty feet apart. Each tank is contained in a water-tight wooden cask, capable of floating it, but anchored, and held below the surface from three to eight feet, according to the state of the tide. The anchor to each is an eighteen inch shell and a piece of kentledge so placed as to prevent the barrels from fouling the buoy ropes at the change of the tide. Each shell of a row is connected with the next one to it by a stout rope thirty feet long, and capable of lifting it in case the cask be carried away. The casks are water-tight, as are also the tanks, the electric cord entering and returning through the same head. The wire for the return current from the battery is passed from shell to shell and along the connecting rope, which lies at the bottom.

The wire that passes from cask to cask is stopped aslack to the buoy rope from the shell up to the cask to which it is securely seized, to prevent any strain upon that part which enters the cask. The return wire is stopped in like manner down the buoy ropes to the shell, and then along the span to the next shell. At 4 the two cords are rapped together, loaded with trace chains a fathom apart and carried ashore to the galvanic battery. For batteries we have 21 Wollastons, each trough containing 18 pairs of plates, zinc and wire, 10 x 12 inches. The first range is called 1: the second 2: the third 3, and the wires are so labelled. Thus all of each range are exploded at once.

Besides these there are two ranges of two tanks each, planted opposite the battery at Chaffin's Bluff. When they were planted it was not known that a battery was to be erected below. These four tanks contain about 6,000 pounds of powder. The great freshets of last month carried away the wires that were to operate the first pair. Lieut. Davidson, who, with the "Teaser" and her crew, has assisted me with the most hearty good will, has dragged for the tanks, but without success, they rest on the bottom. Could they be found it was my intention to raise the four, examine them and if in good condition, place them lower down.

Lieut. Wm. L. Maury, assisted by Acting Master W. F. Carter, and R. Rollins, was charged with the duty of proving the tanks and packing them in casks. There are eleven others, each containing 70 pounds of powder. When tested in the barrels and found ready for use, they will be held in reserve in case of accident to those already down. A larger number was not prepared for want of powder. There are a quantity of admirably insulated wires, a number of shells for anchor or torpedoes and a sufficient quantity of chains for the wires remaining. They will be put in the navy store for safe keeping.

The galvanic batteries, viz.: 21 Wollaston and one Cruickshank (the latter loaned by Dr. Maupin of the University of Virginia), with spare acids are at Chaffin's Bluff in charge of Acting Master Cheeney. He has also in pigs a sufficient quantity mixed to work the batteries, and ready to be poured in for use.

It is proper that I should mention to the department, in terms of commendation the ready and valuable assistance afforded by Dr. Morris, president of the Telegraph Company, and his assistants, especially Mr. Goldwell.

My duties in connection with those batteries being thus closed, I have the honor to await your further orders.

Respectfully, etc.,

M. F. MAURY,

Commander C. S. Navy.

Hon. S. R. Mallory,

Secretary of the Navy, Present.

Shortly after, Captain Maury was ordered to London on secret service for the Navy Department, and that he might avail himself of laboratories and workshops for experiment and improvement of his new science, in which he was now regarded as supreme authority. He was to report progress and improvement in this new means of making successful war from time to time to the Navy Department, which was constantly done during the next two years, and thus the result of his labours and inventions communicated to the officers in charge of the torpedo stations now established along our Atlantic Coast. His devices and inventions, which have not since been surpassed and some of which are still in use, had reference chiefly to exploding the torpedo; to determining with certainty from a distance the moment when a ship should enter within explosive range, and at all times to test its condition and to verify its location.

Lieut. Hunter Davidson, his valued assistant, succeeded him in charge of the James River batteries, and in time extended the mines some distance below. During the two years when he was in charge he planted many electrical torpedoes in the channel of the river, to be fired from concealed stations on shore. Some of these contained 1,800 pounds of powder.

In August, 1862, the Federal steamer "Commodore Barney" was badly disabled by one of these, and in 1864 the "Comm. Jones" was totally destroyed, with nearly all on board, the first fruits of Maury's electrical torpedo defense. The first vessel destroyed by a submarine torpedo was the gunboat--ironclad--"Cairo," in the Yazoo River. The torpedo was a demijohn of powder enclosed in a box sunk in the river and fired by a string from the shore. Lieut. Beverley Kennon claimed the credit for this but Masters McDaniel and Ewing did the actual work.

Early in 1864 Davidson, in a steam launch, specially constructed for him, called "The Torpedo," having made 120 mile run down James River, all within the enemies' lines, exploded a torpedo against the flagship "Minnesota," at anchor off Newport News. The river swarmed with the enemy's vessels, and the guard boat was lying by the "Minnesota," but her captain had allowed his steam to go down. Davidson hit the great ship full and fair, causing great consternation on board, but the torpedo charge was only fifty-three pounds of powder and it failed to break in her sides, although considerable damage was done. Davidson suffered no injury and returned to Richmond without incident.

On August 9, 1864, there was a great explosion in Grant's lines at City Point, on the James, caused by a torpedo with a clock attached which caused it to explode at a given hour. With daring unexcelled John Maxwell and R. K. Dillard, of the torpedo corps, made their way into the lines, carrying the machine neatly boxed with them, which Maxwell handed aboard one of the boats lying at the wharf, saying that the captain had directed him to do so. In half an hour there was a terrible explosion, killing and wounding fifty men and destroying much property and many stores besides, injuring many nearby vessels, which brave John Maxwell quietly witnessed seated upon a log upon a hillside close by.