The Spar Torpedo – which plays a vital role in my novel Britannia’s Wolf, the account of
Nicholas Dawlish’s service in the Ottoman Navy 1877-78 – was a crude weapon,
born of necessity and desperation in the American Civil War. Its use demanded a
near-kamikaze commitment from its users, for it was potentially as dangerous to
them as to its intended targets. Its lifetime was short – some 20 years – and
it was rendered obsolete by the vastly more effective self-propelled “fish
torpedo” that remains in service today. Yet for all its drawbacks the spar
torpedo remained the only effective way available for a small craft to sink a
larger one – and warships were getting significantly larger, and better
protected above the waterline, throughout its period of use. The most
remarkable aspect of its history is not just that it did indeed score several
notable successes, but that in almost every case the crews who deployed it
managed to beat the odds and come off relatively unscathed.
The idea was a simple one – to ram a large explosive charge against
an enemy vessel’s hull as deeply as possible below the waterline and to explode
it, in the early models by a contact detonator, later by an electric current.
Given that high-speed small craft did not yet exist, and that a small
steam-driven launch could make at best some six or eight knots, attacks on
ships under way in the open sea were ruled out. Moored ships were more
appropriate targets but given the slow approach speeds involved the attackers
would have to rely on stealth to avoid detection by lookouts or by small craft
patrolling the anchorage.
Spar Torpedo test, 1870s - the danger to the attacker is obvious! |
Yet despite the crudity of the weapon the spar torpedo worked well on
several occasions, and the crews survived, not least due to lack of vigilance
by their victims. Notable successes included:
CSS David: On October 5th 1863 this
small, iron, steam-driven cylindrical vessel, which floated practically awash,
got within 50 yards of the Union Navy’s New Ironsides on blockade duty outside
Charleston harbour before the lookouts detected her. Pressing her attack home
the David exploded her charge, badly damaged her target, survived the explosion
and limped away to safety.
CSS Hunley: Another Confederate
near-submarine, but this time propelled by a hand-cranked screw rather than by
steam, attacked the Union blockading force outside Charleston on February 17th
1864. In the process the Hunley sank the 1,240-ton screw sloop USS Housatonic but disappeared afterwards,
probably swamped by the explosion of her own weapon.
Contemporary illustration of Picket Boat No.1's attack |
Picket Boat No.1: A major concern for the Union Navy was the destruction
of the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle,
which had already held her own against a Union flotilla attacking up the
Roanoke River towards Plymouth, North Carolina, in May 1864. The Union Navy had
by now woken up to the potential of the spar torpedo and the task of destroying
the Albemarle was entrusted to two
steam-propelled 30-foot picket boats commanded by the intrepid Lieutenant
William Cushing. Under cover of darkness on 27th October 1864 his two craft
managed to get close to the moored ironclad before being detected but, as
rifle-fire erupted, Cushing found that it was surrounded by a boom of floating
logs. Charging it, and with the spar deployed, he managed to get Picket Boat No.1 slithering across, then
plunged the warhead under the ironclad and jerked the firing lanyard. The
resulting explosion sank No.1 and blew Cushing and his men into the water but
“a hole big enough to drive a wagon through” had been blown in the Albemarle’s side, sinking her into the
mud and removing her from the war. Cushing and one other crew-member swam to
safety, the others being killed or captured.
Russian forces crossing the Danube 1877 The need to eliminate Turkish vessels dominating this broad river was obvious (Painting by Nikolai Dimitieve Orenburgsky 1883) |
Russian Spar torpedo launches on the Danube 1877 |
Russian Use 1877:
Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in April 1877 and commenced
operations by sending a large force across the Danube to strike south into
Bulgaria. Recognising in advance that the presence of Ottoman monitors on the
river would pose a major threat to their lines of communication the Russians
transported ten small steam-sloops overland and launched them on the river.
Wooden, a mere 20-feet long, their boilers protected by what appear from
contemporary drawings to be sandbags, these craft carried out a total of nine
attacks with spar torpedoes. In one raid, on the night of May 25th-26th 1877
two Russian craft, the Czarevitch and
the Xenia, sank the Ottoman monitor Seifi and two other enemy craft. The
Russian casualties amounted to two dead and 10 wounded, and though the tactical
victory was impressive the strategic implications were immense. Although
Ottoman naval forces continued to operate off the Danube mouth they never again
menaced the Russian crossing points upriver.
Russian Spar Torpedo launch - note the rings around the warheads - possibly contact detonators |
French attack at Shipu Feb 14th 1885 |
Battle of Shipu:
France went to war with the Chinese Empire in 1884 over who should control what
is now northern Vietnam. On paper at least the Chinese possessed a modern navy,
its ships purchased overseas and with several foreign ‘advisers’, including
Germans and Americans, in its service. Despite the latters’ efforts however the
Chinese Navy was in practice riddled with corruption and ineptitude and was
ill-placed to confront a major European navy. In the aftermath of a failed
Chinese attempt to break the French blockade of Taiwan, and an indecisive fleet
encounter, the forces of French Admiral Amédée Courbet trapped two Chinese
steam frigates, the Yuyuan and Chengqing, which had taken refuge under
the guns of Chinese shore batteries in Shipu Bay, about two hundred kilometres
south of Shanghai. On the night of
February 14th 1885 two French spar-torpedo launches, painted black for
camouflage, left their parent ships and manoeuvred their way unseen past junks
and sampans moored close to the Chinese warships. They had all but reached their targets before
the Yuyuan spotted them, and they
came under fire as they pressed their attack home on her. The French exploded their charges and the Yuyuan began to sink. Confused and
panicking, Chinese shore batteries blindly opened fire, hitting the other
Chinese ship, the Chengquing. The
French retreated with only one man killed but both Chinese ships were lost.
One of New Zealand's "Defender" class vessels Note that the spar is retracted and the explosive warhead is not attached |
The sinking of the Yuyuan
appears to have been the last time the spar torpedo was used in anger, though
there are references on the web, but no details, to an attack on the Chilean
central-battery ship Cochrane during
Chile’s Civil War of 1891. By then the Whitehead ‘fish’ or ‘locomotive’ torpedo
was in general use in most navies and development of high speed craft to launch
them was well advanced. In the aftermath of the American Civil War a number of
navies had experimented with slim, high-speed craft for delivering spar-torpedo
attacks, the most notable being the two Acheron class vessels constructed by
Thorneycroft for the New South Wales Naval Service in 1879. Displacing 16 tons,
78 feet long but only 10 feet in the beam, they managed 15 knots and were later
modified to carry Whitehead torpedoes. Four roughly similar craft were
constructed for the prosaically-named New Zealand Armed Constabulary, in
response to fears of raids by Russian cruisers during one of the war scares
that characterised the 1870s and 1880s. Obsolete when completed in 1885, they
too were armed in due course with Whitehead torpedoes.
The Spar Torpedo had had its day. Nobody can have been more
relieved than the crews who had been expected to use them!
And it you want to read about spar torpedoes being used in action during the Russo-Turkish War then dip into "Britannia's Wolf", available in Paperback or Kindle formats. Click on the image below for further details.
Another interesting article, thanks. There is a model of a spar torpedo boat in the NZ Army Museum, Waiouru (which is ironically a long way from the sea!)
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Errol - glad you enjoyed the blog. This is a museum I must look out for if my travels take me to NZ. The most amazing things turn up in the most unexpected places. This URL is a case in point: http://dawlishchronicles.com/chinas-zhongshan-gunboat-a-splendid-restoration/
ReplyDeleteGreat! It sounds good. Thanks for sharing.. PAKISTANI ESCORTS
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