Texas Submarine Proposal

[DaveBrt]

National Archives, Citizen File:

Goliad (Texas) Oct 28th 1863
Maj Genl J. B. Magruder

Dear Sir,
I have been experimenting for more than a year on a Sub Marine Boat designed to destroy the enemy boats blockading our Ports and I confidently believe that I have discovered a plan that will succeed if tried. At least I think the project worth a trial. I am well aware of the magnitude of the undertaking and fell a very great embarrassment in bringing the subject before you but the importance of the undertaking and should the experiment prove successful the advantages that we would gain over our despicable enemy out weights every other consideration. I would have before this made a model of my Boat but it has been impossible for me to get the material or a mechanic to construct it. The various patterns that I have made with my own hands are too rude (to) think of showing. Suffice it to say that I have made a Boat with a chamber containing sufficient air to support several men for 8 or 10 hours. That will float at any desired distance below the surface of the water, will sink to the bottom or rise to the surface at will and can be propelled and guided (except speed) as though on the surface. I then propose to confine a torpedo on top of the Boat of sufficient size to destroy any vessel now afloat. We will then go under any ship that may be laying at anchor, come up under her, let men then come out as is done in diving bells, fasten the torpedo to the bottom of the ship with a line attached to the fuse in the torpedo; to the other end of the line a small anchor so that when the ship may attempt to leave her anchorage the small anchor will take hold and explode the torpedo. The Boat can be built at a small expense (say $20,000) and I think in a short time. If you think the matter worth a further investigation I will come to Houston and will present the whole plan to you in person. I would have done so before this but my experiments had not progressed as far as I desired when the Gov called out the militia. I have since that time been in camp near this place most of the time.
Yours Respectfully,
J. R. Hamilton

(Marked Received Oct. 31, 1863, but no disposition indicated.)

 

[AndyHall]

An interesting side note to this is that here in Texas, the C.S. Navy had no operational presence to speak of, and all the "naval" stuff done with cottonclads, guard boats, etc. came under the command of the army. Even at Charleston, where the C.S. Navy had significant resources and vessels, the experimental craft like H. L. Hunley and (I think) the Davids were considered special projects directly under General Beauregard, rather than being in the naval chain of command.

 

[Benjamin Davis]

Hunley aside the Confederacy didn't have a great record with submarines.

An interesting side note to this is that here in Texas, the C.S. Navy had no operational presence to speak of, and all the "naval" stuff done with cottonclads, guard boats, etc. came under the command of the army.

Cottonclads?!? Why don't I know of those?

 

[AndyHall]

Cottonclads?!? Why don't I know of those?

Slang (and mildly derisive) term for a civilian vessel stacked with bales of cotton for protection. Reasonably effective against small arms fire. Here is the cottonclad gunboat Bayou City (right) alongside Harriet Lane after the Battle of Galveston (Rosenberg Library).

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[Patrick H]

Regarding these submarines: I just don't think I could ever climb into one of these vessels--even for a harbor cruise. I don't know how anyone does it to this day. I am way too claustrophobic to consider that type of service. Those sailors are much braver than I am. I not ashamed to admit it. My hat is off to the people who did it then, and in subsequent wars and times of peace, and those who do it today!

 

[AndyHall]

A hard-hat diver from the 1880s, from a book of nautical illustrations. In his belt he carries a knife, to cut away nets or entanglements, in his left hand he carries an acetylene lamp for light, and on his chest is strapped a Whitman's Valentine Chocolate Sampler, just in case.

 

[georgew]

Slang (and mildly derisive) term for a civilian vessel stacked with bales of cotton for protection. Reasonably effective against small arms fire. Here is the cottonclad gunboat Bayou City (right) alongside Harriet Lane after the Battle of Galveston (Rosenberg Library).

Hi Andy, just a thought. If you look just aft of the Bayou City's funnel you see an odd item sticking up in the sky. I think this may be a boarding ladder, kind of similar in concept to the Roman Corvus device. Also notice the "boxed" wheel and machinery space. You wonder if they did something similar behind the cotton bales to protect the boilers. When this boat was delivered to Texas, she was "bulkheaded" and I take this to mean that she had temporary higher rails to keep her from being swamped while transiting from the Mississippi to Galveston. It may be that the the deck reinforcements still existed after the bulkheads were removed in Texas which would have been an advantage when they cotton cladded her. Apparently the Neptune No. 2 was similarly clad, but I've never found any image of her.

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[AndyHall]

If you look just aft of the Bayou City's funnel you see an odd item sticking up in the sky. I think this may be a boarding ladder, kind of similar in concept to the Roman Corvus device. Also notice the "boxed" wheel and machinery space. You wonder if they did something similar behind the cotton bales to protect the boilers. When this boat was delivered to Texas, she was "bulkheaded" and I take this to mean that she had temporary higher rails to keep her from being swamped while transiting from the Mississippi to Galveston. It may be that the the deck reinforcements still existed after the bulkheads were removed in Texas which would have been an advantage when they cotton cladded her. Apparently the Neptune No. 2 was similarly clad, but I've never found any image of her.

Yes, that's a boarding ramp similar to a Roman corvus. The one on the port side was released when Bayou City went under Harriet Lane's bow on her first pass, and ended up dragging in the water and had to be cut loose. Bayou City lacks a pilot house in this image as it was wrecked in that same pass under Harriet Lane's bowsprit.

There may have been some remaining reinforcement from when she was bulkheaded for the Gulf of Mexico crossing, but that part of the boat had been thoroughly wrecked when she blew up her boilers on Buffalo Bayou in the fall of 1860, and had to be rebuilt.

Both Bayou City and Neptune No. 2 were similarly outfitted, and there may have been additional timber around the forward end of the main deck. Unfortunately I haven't seen any very detailed descriptions of how it was done.

Here is Neptune No. 2, from the same image as Bayou City. Here she is sunk in shallow water near the wharf, and Confederate soldiers are wading ashore (far left). She was salvaged in place and never refloated.