1864 - USS Spuyten Duyvil

CMWinkler

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1864 - USS Spuyten Duyvil
The Spuyten Duyvil was a true armored warship unlike the smaller CSS David - the South's first torpedo boat. While the David could only be deployed for several hours at a time, the Spuyten Duyvil could go for eight days with adequate food and water for nine men. It could carry several torpedoes allowing for it to make multiple attacks. The most remarkable feature of the ship was the ability, by separately driven engine pumps, to raise and lower herself in the water. She could change her draft by a full 3’ 5-1/2.” This design also ensured the complete sound proofing of the boat. Spuyten Duyvil’s only combat action was the battle of Trent’s Reach in the closing days of the Civil War.
PhotozHinds-US-Spuyten-side.jpg


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http://www.naval-history.net/PhotoZHinds.htm


I found this to be a fascinating little boat.
 
A very unusual little craft, in some ways reminiscent of a miniature monitor... she was originally going to be named Stromboli (after the volcano), but was renamed after the channel connecting the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. She seems to have primarily served as an experimental test bed, but was operational on the James River in early 1865 and helped clear obstructions from the river to secure Lincoln's visit to Richmond after that city's fall to Union forces.
 
To me the most fascinating thing about this ship was the way she was built - in true Yankee fashion in about three months. It definitely was advanced for its time. A little too late though. Cushing could have used this craft against the Albemarle and the fleet could have used it off Charleston against the Chicora & Palmetto State.

Only her hull was built in Fair Haven, CT, now a part of New Haven. Her engines, boiler, torpedo machinery, torpedoes, engine for torpedo machinery, etc. were built all over the place, from Schenectady to Mystic, CT. They towed her to Mystic (where the engine & boilers were made) to put all the machinery together and then cruised down to Jersey City for final assembly and arming. They ran a test on the Hudson R. and detonated a small torpedo - success.

The reason they did this for two fold: 1.) because they could. By 1864 Northern industrial prowess could flex its muscles any which way it wanted; 2.) secrecy - hiding its development from curious eyes, reporters, Copperheads, etc.

I've been trying to find the Fair Haven shipyard where it was built but no luck. I've checked the New Haven Historical Society records, the public library, Mystic Maritime achives....
 
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