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war vessels in Long Island Sound." The Berrian boar was maneuvered mrough rhe use of screw propellers exrending from irs sides and manually operared by rhe crew, and was reportedly armed wirh five torpedoes char could be deployed independendy. The vessel was soon "complered ar grear expense" in New York and was en roure to rhe ease end of Long Island by !are June 1814. 25 Berrian's vessel was a semi-submersible crafr 30 feer in lengrh, wirh only a foor to 18 inches of irs topside exposed above the surface and "built bomb proof" with iron sheathing. 26 An unidentified British naval officer sent home a description of the revolutionary ironclad Berrian boat. ''American pilor-vessels for towing torpedoes," he wroce, "have been invented in New York, for me purpose of propelling rhrough me water rhe infernal torpedoes intended to blow up rhe British line-of-batde ships. A winch inside this vessel rums rwo wheels [propellers] on the outside, and which are placed on the larboard side. These wheels impel both the pilot-vessel and the torpedo attached to it at the rate of four miles an hour. Within the vessel are rwelve men. The bonom of it is nor much unlike thar of a boat, but its top is arched. The scamlings are those of a ship of 100 tons: the planks are of inch-and-half stuff, and rhese being covered over with iron plates half an inch in thickness, are not to be injured by shot. On the top is a scutcle for rhe crew to enter, and this opening is also rhe look-out where a sentinel is constancly placed. Two air-holes, forward and abafr, give sufficient
Fulton's anchored mine torpedo as it appears in a French publication. 1he mines were deployed in 1814 in the approaches to New York Harbor, possibly the first large-scale employment of such underwater harbor defenses in the Western Hemisphere.
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air to the crew. The vessel draws 6 feet of warer, bur one foor only is to be seen above rhe warer, and chis being painted of a dingy whire, is nor perceivable." 27 The vessel was described in rhe American press as " (a] new invented Torpedo Boar resembling a Turde floaring just above the surface of the water, and sufficiencly roomy to carry nine persons within, having on her back a coat of mail , consisting of three large bombs, which could be discharged by machinery, so as to bid defiance to any attacks by barges .... At one end of the Boat projected a long pole under water, with a [spar] torpedo fastened to it, which as she approached rhe enemy in the night, was to be poked under the bottom of a 74, and then let off."28 Accompanied by rwo gunboats, the vessel traveled easrward along the north
shore of Long Island towards Southold, New York, and was lefr "under the charge of nine men, who proceeded in her on rhe expedition." Arriving on 23 June off Horton's Point, near Southold, a sire deemed "a suitable place for observation" of British naval activiries, she dropped anchor just as rhe weather began to deteriorare. 29 As rhe gale increased, the torpedo boat "pitched very deep at sea, and labored so hard chat her conductors grew alarmed." One panicky crewman jumped overboard and attempted to swim to shore. Then, as the swimmer appeared to be in peril of drowning, the crew cut the anchor cable in an effort to drift toward him and effect his rescue, but in vain. Soon, the vessel irself was driven hard agro und at Horton Point near the farm of a farmstead, where the remaining crew made their escape. As soon
Conjectural drawing ofthe Berrian torpedo boat based upon descriptions in the American and British press, and personal observations ofa British officer who participated in its destruction. Note the small craft bearing torpedoes being towed behind.
. CYRIL FIELD, T H E STORY OF THE SUBMARI NE FROM
SEA HISTORY 141 , WINTER2012- 13
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