The Submarine Torpedo Boat
Its Characteristics And Modern Development

6 THE SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOAT were built of steel and were propelled by steam engines, the only radical departures from the earlier types. They carried torpedoes fixed to the ends of outriggers or spars and their mode of attack was to ram the vessel upon which the attack was to be made with these torpedoes, causing the latter to explode by the shock, and blow up the boat. I believe that none of these “Davids” succeeded in making an attack under water, but one of them did succeed in ramming with a spar torpedo the Federal gunboat Housa- tonic while she was at anchor, the ensuing explosion sink- ing the “David” as well as the gunboat. In 1863 the French again took up the problem of sub- marine boats and succeeded in turning out Le Plongeur, which was the first large submarine ever built, having a displacement of nearly 500 tons. It was in fact larger than anything that had been constructed up to very recent years. It was equipped with compressed air engines for motive power and carried a number of containers for hold- ing air under pressure for driving the engines. At this time however, compressed air engineering was still in an undeveloped state, and the vessel was able to remain under water but a very short time and could only make a speed of four or five knots. Le Plongeur was also found to be uncontrollable under water, having no stability. However, the French Government experimented with this boat until 1874 and then gave up the project of submarines once more as being impractical. Mr. John P. Holland in this country was the next of note to take up submarine development. His first boat, called the Fenian Ram, was built at New Haven, Conn., in the early eighties, for the Fenian Society of New Haven, the necessary funds having been raised by the Society