Cross-section of CSA torpedo found in Tennessee River

Don't hold me to this, but from what I remember . . . I 'm thinking those mines had yet to be deployed and were still within Fort Pemberton.

I think someone may have been tinkering with one of em' perhaps dropped a hammer on one and then KABOOM !

It was a tragic accident.

Now that I have learned about the electricity, I have a horrible feeling one of them said, "Watch This!"

And yes, they were "a-tinkering with a mine." Took out my great-grandfather's brother (1st Lt) and his cousin, plus another guy.
 
For an incomplete, chronological list of 40 vessels sunk by torpedoes prior to July 1864, see Scharf 1877, 768. In the most detailed listing found, Schiller (2011, Appendix 1, 139-67) describes 43 vessels lost or damaged by torpedoes, five of which are unconfirmed by the author and 13 of which occurred between 1861 and 1863. Schiller’s total is mirrored from historian Milton Perry (1965, Appendix, 199-201). Also see Bell (2003, 471) who also lists 43 Union vessels lost to torpedoes. Gabriel Rains (1877, 256) offers there were 58 vessels sunk by torpedo. In a note at the end of the article D. H. Maury noted that Rains offered an incorrect number of torpedo sinkings in Mobile (three) that should be corrected to 12, raising the total to 67. In a later article, Maury (1894, 78) offers a similarly high number stating, “official reports show that sixty-eight Federal vessels were destroyed by torpedoes during the War Between the States.” However, neither Rains nor Maury actually lists the vessels.

In 'America's Use of Sea Mines' by Robert C Duncan, he quotes 27 ships sunk...


This USN site also claims 27 and '...damaged many more.' http://www.exwar.org/1800_history/mine/civil.htm


I can also recommend 'Weapons That Wait: Mine Warfare in the U.S. Navy' by Gregory Kemenyi Hartmann

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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