636

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE “ALBEMARLE ."

revolvers, cutlasses, and liand-grenades. To be sure, there were ten times ournumber on the ship and thousands near by; but a surprise is everything, andI thought if her fasts were cut at the instant of boarding, we might overcomethose on board, take her into the stream, and use her iron sides to protect usafterward from the forts. Knowing the town, I concluded to land at thelower wharf, creep around, and suddenly dash aboard from the bank; butjust as I was sheering in close to the wharf, a hail came, sharp and quick,from the iron-clad, and in an instant was repeated. I at once directed the

cutter to cast off, and go down tocapture the guard left in our rear,and, ordering all steam, went at the

FIG. 2. CUSHING’S TORPEDO — SECTIONAL VIEW.

FIG. 1. CUSHING’S LAUNCH AND TORPEDO — SHOWING METHODS OF WORKING.

A long spar A {Fig. 1) was pivoted by means of a uni-versal joint on its inboard end into the bracket B, thebracket being securely fastened to the outside of theboat. The spar was raised or lowered by means of ahalliard e, which passed through a block at the head ofthe stanchion C, and thence down to the drum of a smallwindlass D, situated in the bottom of the boat, directlyabaft the stanchion. On the outboard end of the sparwas a socket, or head, which carried the shell. The shellwas held in place only by a small pin g, which passedthrough a lug h, protruding from the lower side of theshell, and thence through an inclined plane i, w r hich wasattached to the socket. The lug and pin are clearlyshown in Fig. 2 . To detach the shell the pin g waspulled, and the shell forced gently out of the socket.This was accomplished by a lanyard,/, which led fromthe boat to the head of the socket, passing back of thehead of the shell through the lugs a a, so that when thelanyard was tautened it would force the shell out. Asmaller lanyard l , leading to the pin g, was spliced to thelanyard./ in such a manner that when the lanyard,/ waspulled, iirst the pin and then the shell would come out.

The shell (Fig. 2} contained an air chamber X and apowder chamber Z. The result of this arrangement wasthat when the shell was detached it assumed a verticalposition, with the air chamber uppermost, and, beinglighter than its volume of water, it floated graduallytoward the surface. At the top of its central shaft ortube was a grape-shot, held in place by a pin p , to whichwas attached the lanyard s. The pin was a trigger, andthe lanyard was known as the trigger-line. Upon pull-ing the lanyard the pin came out, the shot fell by its ownweight upon the nipple, which was covered by a per-cussion-cap and connected directly with the powderchamber, whereupon the torpedo exploded.

When the spar was not in use it was swung around bymeans of a stern line, bringing the head of the spar tothe stern of the boat. To use the apparatus, the shellwas put in place and the spar was swung around headforward; it was then lowered by means of the halliarde to the required depth; the lanyard j was pulled, with-drawing the pin < 7 , and forcing out the shell; finally,when the floating shell had risen to its place, the trigger-line s was pulled and the torpedo fired.

dark mountain of iron in front of us. A heavy fire was at once openedupon us, not only from the ship, hut from men stationed on the shore. Thisdid not disable us, and we neared them rapidly. A large fire now blazedupon the bank, and by its light I discovered the unfortunate fact thatthere was a circle of logs around the Albemarle , boomed well out from herside, with the very intention of preventing the action of torpedoes. Toexamine them more closely, I ran alongside until amidships, received theenemy’s fire, and sheered off for the purpose of turning, a hundred yardsaway, and going at the booms squarely, at right angles, trusting to their