the borrom in strategic locations, or strung across naviga ble cha nnels. Nor ro be confused w ith the self-propelled rorpedo known in modern wa rfare, which was invented after the Civil War, these weapons were used to strike a ship at its waterline and sink, or at leas t incapacitate, it. These were used in the 1778 "Barde of the Kegs," when a British fleer attacked Philadelphia, bur not before having to pass through a mine field of drifting kegs loaded with gunpowder and ar med with a contact fuse or cap in the Delaware River. These were similar to rhe mines famously avoided by Admiral David "Damn the rorpedoes" Farragut and his fleer as they mounted their attack in the Barde of Mobile Bay in August of 1864. Over time, the wooden kegs became waterlogged , rendering the gunpowder harmless. All of these scenarios required a torpedo ro run into a ship or a ship to run into a rorpedo ro set them off. Confederate Navy Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, fa mous for his work overseeing the National Observarory for the US Navy before the war, invented a way to wire these rorpedoes On 4 August 1863, a torpedo exploded under the bow ofthe Union so they could be couched off remotely from shore, and either gunboat Commodore Barney in the James River. Witnesses reported damage the ship or at least intimidate a capta in creeping his way that the steamer was lifted ten feet in the air, hurling thirty men in through treacherous waters. Ir was Maury's floating mine field in the crew overboard. Sketch by F C. H Bonwill, 1863. the James River that successfu lly protected Richmond, Virgi ni a, from a riverine invasion in 1862. a-half-ton obstacle could be floated on a raft, dropped overboard As ambitious amphibious landings became more of a threat and submerged in the shallows off a beach. A smaller alternate in the twentieth century, other variations on underwater obstruc- va riation was the "hedgehog," three steel beams welded or bolted tions we re developed. In 1939 and early 1940, the Cointet-element together to form a six-pointed cross. The Germans, in the defense or Belgian Gate, attrib uted to the French army colonel, Leon- of the Normandy beachhead, ex tensively used these underwater Edmond de Cointet de Fillain, was introduced as an anti-rank obstacles. Innovative state-of-the-art mines have become the defensive land defense. Ir was in essence a heavy steel fence welded ro steel beams that formed a sled that could be entrenched into the mud weapon of choice in the twentieth century. The US Navy refers or sa nd. Roughly ten feet wide by seven feet high, this two-and- to zones in the water column as "deep water" (deeper than 300 In probably the only poem concerning a defensive underwater obstruction, H erman Melville wrote "The Stone Fleer" in 1861: I have a feeling for those old ships, Each worn and ancient one, With great bluff bows and broad in the beam: Ay, it was unkindly done. But so they serve the ObsoleteEven so, Stone Fleer!
Four were erst patrician keels (Names attest what families be) , The Kensington, and Richmond too, Leonidas and Lee: But now they have their seat With the Old Stone Fleer.
You'll say I'm doting; do bur think I scudded round rhe Horn in oneThe Tenedos, a glorious Good old craft as ever runSunk (how all unmeer!) With the Old Stone Fleer.
To scuttle them-a pirate deedSack them, and dismast; They sunk so slow, they died so hard, But gurgling dropped at last. Their ghosts in gales repeat Woes us. Stone Fleet!
An India ship of fame was she, Spices and shawls and fans she bore; A whaler when her wrinkles cameTurned off! till, spent and poor, Her bones were sold (escheat)! Ah! Stone Fleer.
And all for naught. The waters passC urrents will h ave their way; Nature is nobody's ally; 'tis well ; The harbor is bettered-will stay. A fa ilure, and complete, Was yo ur Old Stone Fleer.
- H erma n Melvi ll e, "The Sro ne Fleer, An O ld Sai lor's Lamenr," in Battle-Pieces and Aspects ofthe War, (New York: Harper & Brorhers) 1866.
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SEA HISTORY 158, SPRlNG 2017