11/15/2023 0 Comments First submarine civil wamThese were used on an ad hoc basis during the early modern period up to the late 19th century. In modern language, a "torpedo" is an underwater self-propelled explosive, but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval mines and spar torpedoes. Main article: Naval mine Fulton's torpedo : 238 Confederates laying naval mines in Charleston Harbor For example, in 1275, Arab engineer Hasan al-Rammah – who worked as a military scientist for the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt – wrote that it might be possible to create a projectile resembling "an egg", which propelled itself through water, whilst carrying "fire". Torpedo-like weapons were first proposed many centuries before they were successfully developed. In naval usage, the American Robert Fulton introduced the name to refer to a towed gunpowder charge used by his French submarine Nautilus (first tested in 1800) to demonstrate that it could sink warships. The word torpedo comes from the name of a genus of electric rays in the order Torpediniformes, which in turn comes from the Latin torpere ("to be stiff or numb"). In modern warfare, a submarine-launched torpedo is almost certain to hit its target the best defense is a counterattack using another torpedo. They can be launched from a variety of platforms. Modern torpedoes are classified variously as lightweight or heavyweight straight-running, autonomous homers, and wire-guided types. While the 19th-century battleship had evolved primarily with a view to engagements between armored warships with large-caliber guns, the invention and refinement of torpedoes from the 1860s onwards allowed small torpedo boats and other lighter surface vessels, submarines/ submersibles, even improvised fishing boats or frogmen, and later light aircraft, to destroy large ships without the need of large guns, though sometimes at the risk of being hit by longer-range artillery fire. From about 1900, torpedo has been used strictly to designate a self-propelled underwater explosive device. The term torpedo originally applied to a variety of devices, most of which would today be called mines. Historically, such a device was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive, or fish torpedo colloquially a fish. Bliss–Leavitt Mark 8 torpedoĪ modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. For other uses, see Torpedo (disambiguation). For the pre-1900 naval meaning of "torpedo", see Naval mine. NHHC Photograph Collection.This article is about the self-propelled weapon. Reconstructed plan by Chief Electrician's Mate James P. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Naval Research, and the Naval History and Heritage Command's Underwater Archelogy branch have joined forces to find this important vessel. Ordered to be towed by Sumpter to Port Royal, South Carolina, the ships encountered bad weather on April 2, where Sumpter was forced to cut Alligator adrift where she soon sank off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Du Pont decided that Alligator might be useful in carrying out his plans to take Charleston, South Carolina. In the early months of 1863, Rear Admiral Samuel F. While at the Navy Yard, a screw propeller was installed to increase her speed to four knots and President Abraham Lincoln observed the submarine in operation. Selfridge, Jr., became the commanding officer and was assigned a naval crew. Arriving at the Washington Navy Yard later that month, Lieutenant Thomas O. Towed to Norfolk, Virginia, in June, Alligator operated in the James River and near Appoxmattox. Two tubes, with floats, provided air from the surface. For armament, she had two limpet mines and was propelled by a hand-cranked propeller. Forty-seven feet long, she could carry 18 men. Launched at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May 1862, she was to be utilized to counter the threat to the Union by the Confederate blockaders and the rebuilding of the frigate Merrimack as the Confederate ironclad ram Virginia. Constructed in the fall of 1861, during the Civil War, the submersible Alligator was designed by French engineer Brutus de Villeroi.
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