Sinking the "Stone Fleet" in the approaches to Charleston.
Confederate military supplies and the export of Southern cotton-the economic lifeblood of the Confederacy. The effort was largely ineffective. In time, the tides and strong currents pushed the wrecks aside, allowing safe passage past them. The sinking of the stone fleet did more to hasten the end of the New England whaling industry than it did to harm the South. A community accessible by a river or narrow channel could be defended by the simple yet menacing chevaux de frise, originally used on land as a defense against cavalry charges, but later adapted for maritime defense. Chevaux de frise are long stout timber poles driven into riverbed cribs, sharpened to a point, and usually covered with sheet metal or iron barrels protecting the spikes. They were set at an angle to ram and possibly impale the hulls of invading ships, a stealthy and effective technology when placed a few feet below the water's surface. Another riverine defense was the placement of sturdy chains, nets, and cables strung across a narrow part of a watercourse, anchored to the riverbanks. The most famous in American history were the chains that traversed a bend of the Hudson River to protect the fortifications at West Point during the Revolutionary War, consisting of approximately eight hundred forged links, each two feet long and weighing roughly a hundred pounds. Called "General Washington's Watch Chain" by Revolutionary War soldiers stationed at the fort, this obstruction blocked the strategic waterway for the remainder of the war. Chains and boom installations were placed upriver at both New York's Fort Montgomery and the fort at Pollepel Island. A gigantic chain connected Fort Lee to Fort Washington, more than 2,400 feet across, in upper Manhattan. ~J' ·
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A series ofchains and booms were strung across the Hudson River to protect West Point during the American Revolution.
Section ofan 18th-century map ofthe 1777 Philadelphia campaign, showing the location of chevaux de frise in the Delaware River.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
There were a variety of underwater weapons called "torpedoes" used extensively during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but those used in coastal defense were typically floating kegs cast adrift downstream (and uncontrollable once let go), moored to
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