Towed Torpedoes?

[corn-fed-erate]

I read in a thread that researchers think the Hunley was initially going to tow a torpedo behind it. The Hunley would dive under an enemy ship and tow the torpedo into the side of the ship. This would put the Hunley in a position that was protected from the blast. Don't want to get into the difficulty of pulling that off. My question is about the torpedo. Which torpedo design would have been the best for the Hunley or even a small, fast surface gun boat to tow. The shape of the Raines seem good if attached at the end of one of the cones, but fuze/primer placement would need to be rearranged. Was towing torpedoes ever used as a naval tactic during the ACW?

 

[AndyHall]

I don't know of any plans or drawings for the towed torpedo. Yes, it was very dangerous for the towing vessel, and (IIRC) there was an incident with Hunley that scared the bejesus out of all concerned. That was one reason they switched to the spar torpedo, that was more easily controlled.

I don't recall towed torpedoes being used, since that would require the towing boat to be exposed, but I do think there were torpedoes set to drift on the current.

 

[rebelatsea]

Towed torpedoes were experimented with by most European navies after he ACW, but they were found to be more dangerous to the towing vessel and your own side than they were to the enemy. If the towing vessel stopped, or slowed down the torpedo tended not to and swung round on the end of it's tow, if you were lucky it lost momentum and stopped before reaching it's parent. A sharp alteration of course could be even more lethal. The things had a small mast , sometimes with a flag attached so some hapless soul had to watch where the thing was going at all times. Difficult enough under fire in daylight, but at night impossible.

 

[Carronade]

The first sinking of a ship by a submarine was by a towed torpedo, or "carcass" as it was called, by Robert Fulton's Nautilus in a trial in France in 1801.

To use it operationally, a submarine would have to be able to accurately measure and maintain depth. Assuming one could clearly see the target, a knowledgeable person could make a reasonable estimate of its draft. And of course there would have be sufficient depth under the target; Housatonic had barely enough water under her to sink.

 

[vikingbear]

Andy,
Believe I have a copy of a one of Fulton's idea's showing a small fast boat towing two of his towed torpedo design, (will look for it). Before the war of 1812 he attempted to get the Navy to buy some of his designs.
One was to drop 2 torpedoes's tied together (like above) but a longer rope, in front of the bow of a ship so this ship, by moving ahead would force the torpedoes toward either side of the hull. A second was to have a harpoon like gun with a line attached to the torpedo. Firing a "Harpoon" into the forward part of the vessel hoping to have the same results as above. The third was the towed torpedo. Fulton designed some type of water wing so that the torpedoes curved outwards from behind the boat (like a WWI or II minesweeper "sweep line). thus any explosion would be behind and to the side away from this mini PT boat.
OH YA CAN'T FORGOT THIS.....He proposed that these torpedo sq's would consist of 50 to 100 mini PT'S all attacking at once from every sides.

GRIZZ

 

[kvholland]

There was a plan to target the USS Essex at Port Hudson by a few men consealed in a hollow log and towing a torpedo. The plan was not implemented.

 

[Dilandu]

As i recall, the russian navy tried the electrical-ignited towed torpedoes - the "krylatkas" (i.e. "winged" torpedo, named so for her unusual form) - during the war with Ottoman's in 1878. The basic idea was, that the small fast steamboat would tow torpedo on full speed to the enemy ship, and near the enemy the steamboat would turn rapidly and tow the torpedo under the enemy.

They weren't very good, and required a lot of skill to use; but they were much safer than the spare torpedoes.