as the gale subsided, the crewmen, assisted by local farmers, desperately but without success attempted to refloar the vessel.3° The presence of "rhe infernal machine" could not go unnoticed for long, and rwo warships, Maidstone and Sylph, were soon en route to destroy her. "On rheirapproach," it was first reported, "the persons engaged in the expedition took our some of rhe machinery, saving all rhar rhey could, set fire to rhe remainder, and blew it up." 3 1 A conflicting account, however, credits the British with destroying it (after taking measurements and sketches), despite a spirited defense by the Sag Harbor Militia, which killed four men at the first landing attempt. 32 Three days after rhe loss of the revolutionary Berrian torpedo boar, which was also the first-known ironclad warship in the history of rhe Western Hemisphere and also the first to be destroyed as a consequence of combat, word of the historic event reached New York City and was reported in the pages of The Columbian. Yer, in the swirl of subsequent events and tumult of war, the Berrian episode was all bur forgotten. 33 Though the further use of torpedoes, deployed by whaleboats, torpedo boars, and even torpedo deployment by Fulton to mine strategic passages and harbors, continued unabated to the end of the war, none were successful. The bountyinduced development of submarine and torpedo/mine warfare on a large scale would nor be seriously resurrected for another half-century. Ir would never again be ignored. J, NOTES 1 John K. Mahon, The Warof1812 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972), 7-8. 2 Admiral Sir Henry E. Stanhope to First Lord of rhe Admiralty Robert Saunders Dundas Melville, 5January1813, The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Michael]. Crawford, ed., 3 Vols. (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, Department of rhe Navy, 1985-2002), 2:14. 3 Capt. Charles Stewart to Secretary of rhe Navy William Jones, 5 Feb.1813, RG 45, Captain Letters to the Secretary of the Navy, 1813, Vol.l, No. 53 (Ml25, R26), National Archives and Records Service, Washington, 22
DC; William Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland 1812-1815 (Hatboro, PA: Tradition Press, 1965, rpt. 1913), 16. 4 US Statutes at Large, Vol. 2, Stat. 2, Chap. 47, p. 816. 5 Maryland Gazette (Annapolis), 4 March 1813; Benjamin Henry Latrobe to Robert Fulton, 13 April 1813, Letter Book, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, cited in Cynthia 0. Philip, Robert Fulton: A Biography (New York: Franklin Watts, 1985), 298. 6 Philip, 298; Crawford, 2:356. 7 Captain James Scott, RN, Recollections of a Naval Life, 3 Vols. (London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty: 1834), 3:68. 8 Rear Admiral George Cockburn to Vice Admiral Sir John B. Warren, 16June1813, Papers of George Cockburn, Container 9, Letters Sent, 3 February 1812-6 February 1814, 202-4, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. 9 Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 4 (1813), Parr 2 Quly-December), 365-66. 10 Mix's boat was named in honor of the US frigate Chesapeake, which had been captured after defeat in combat with HBMS Shannon off Boston on 1June1813. 11 Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 4, Pr. 2, 365-66. There are no mentions ofMix's first attacks in the captain's log of Plantagenet. See Captain's Log, HBMS Plantagenet, 18-22 July 1813, Admi ralty, 52-4567, Public Record Office, London [PRO]. 12 Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 4, Parr 2, 365-66. 13 lbid. 14 Cap rain's Log, HBMS Plantagenet, 25 July 1813. 15 Scott, 72; Cyril Field, The Story of the Submarinefrom the EarliestAges to the Present Day (London: S. Low, Marston & Company, Ltd., 1908), 75; Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 4, Parr 2, 46; Philip, 298. 16 Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 4, Parr 2, 365. 17 Samuel Clowden Halsey Submarine [Sketch], Samuel Colt Papers, Box 3, Connecticut Historical Society, Hanford, CT; Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Parr 2 (From July to December 1813), 83:285. Halsey's submarine and his plan of attack were well known in certain American circles. Both Commodore Stephen Decatur, whose squadron had been
locked in the Thames River at New London by Hardy, andRobertFulton were well aware of rhe scheme, if not rhe derails. Robert Fulton to Commodore Stephen Decatur, 5August 1813, Crawford, 2:211. 18 Gentlemen's Magazine, 83:285; Field, 73. 19 Gentlemen's Magazine, 83:285. 20 Ibid. 21 Halsey Submarine. 22 Gentlemen's Magazine, 83:285. 23 James T[errius] De Kay, The Battle of Stonington: Torpedoes, Submarines, and Rockets (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990), 56. 24 Ibid. , 76. 25 NewBedfordMercury,15Julyl814;Rocellus Sheridan Guernsey, New York city and vicinity during the war of 1812-15, being a military, civic and financial local history of that period, with incidents and anecdotes thereof and a description ofthe forts, fortifications, arsenals, defences and camps in and about New York city and harbor. 2 vols. (New York: C.L. Woodward, 1889), 1: 139; Salem Gazette, 8July 1814; New Bedford Mercury, 15 July 1814; De Kay, 128-31. 26 Guernsey, 140. 27 Field, 74-75. 28 New Bedford Mercury, 15 July 1814. 29 Salem Gazette, 8 July 1814, stares "before their arrangements were completed a gale arose." 30 The Columbian, 29 June 1814; Boston Gazette, 7 July 1814; Salem Gazette, 8 July 1814. 31 Salem Gazette, 8July1814; De Kay, 131. 32 Boston Gazette, 7 July 1814; The Columbian, 29 June 1814; Salem Gazette, 8 July 1814. 33 Niles' Weekly Register, 4:3 18. Donald G. Shomette, aformerstajfmemberof the Library ofCongress, is a historian, marine archaeologist, and the author offifteen books. He was twice winner ofthe john Lyman Book Award for Best American Maritime History. His most recent naval history book is Flotilla: The Patuxent Naval Campaign in the War of 1812 Uohns Hopkins University Press, 2009). He has worked in the field of cartography for the National Geographic Society in the production of historic shipwreck maps, and in the recording industry as lyricist and co-producer of the original music CD 1812: Tide of War.
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