tow it beneath a ship and detonate it.
Stationary torpedoes were first deployed by
the Russians during the Crimean War (18541856) to defend the ports’ of Sebastapol,
Cronstadt and Sweaborg. Four English
ships anchored at the port of Cronstadt were
attacked by torpedoes, none were destroyed,
but all were damaged to some degree.
soon after the Union ships left Lavaca harbor. He quickly enlisted his friend and lodge
leader, Dr. John R. Fretwell, as his partner.
According to local journalist Sid Feder, Edgar built his prototypes out of wooden beer
kegs (most likely acquired from a local salon) filled them with dynamite and test fired
them in a nearby slough. According to local
lore, Edgar harassed the local Confederate
Commander, probably Capt. Shea, for men,
gunpowder and money to build additional
torpedoes. Shea attended a demonstration
of the Singer-Fretwell torpedo where it was
tested on a “partially beached hulk; the mine
was placed alongside it and set off. The vessel was blown to atoms.”[4] Acquiescing to
“Infernal Machines” was how the Confederate and Union leaders expressed their
feelings toward the torpedo as a tool of war.
The Confederate Navy formalized the use
of torpedoes by forming the Naval Submarine Battery Service under the command of
Matthew Fontaine Maury, a famous scientist of the period. Maury recruited, trained
and deployed men who would create chaos
amongst the Union Navy. Torpedoes were
cheap, easy to make and very effective.
Edgar started working on his “torpedo mine”
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