CSS David (1863-American)
from
Wikipedia
CSS David was a Civil War-era torpedo boat. On
October 5, 1863, she undertook a partially successful attack on the USS
New Ironsides, then participating in the blockade of Charleston, South
Carolina.
Construction
Based upon a design by St. Julien Ravenel, the
David was built as a private venture by T. Stoney at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1863, and was put under the control of the Confederate States
Navy. Eventually over twenty torpedo boats of the David type were built
for and operated by the CSN. The cigar-shaped boat carried a 32 by 10 inch
(81 × 25 cm) explosive charge of 134 pounds (about 60 kilograms)
gunpowder on the end of a spar projecting forward from her bow. CSS David
operated as a semi-submersible: water was taken into ballast tanks so that
only the length of the open-top conning tower and the stack for the boiler
appeared above water. Designed to operate very low in the water, David
resembled in general a submersible submarine; she was, however, strictly
a surface vessel. Operating on dark nights, and using anthracite coal (which
burns without smoke), David was nearly as hard to see as a true submarine.
|
Pen-and ink drawing of CSS David,
showing external and internal plank
Length: |
50 ft |
Beam: |
6 ft |
Propulsion: |
Steam Engine |
Compliment: |
4 |
Armament: |
1 spar torpedo |
|
Attack on the New Ironsides
On the night of October 5, 1863, David, commanded
by Lieutenant William T. Glassell, CSN, left Charleston Harbor to attack
the casemated ironclad steamer USS New Ironsides. The torpedo boat approached
undetected until she was within 50 yards of the blockader. Hailed by the
watch on board New Ironsides, Glassell replied with a blast from a shotgun
and David plunged ahead to strike. Her spar torpedo detonated under the
starboard quarter of the ironclad, throwing high a column of water which
rained back upon the Confederate vessel and put out her boiler fires. Her
engine dead, David hung under the quarter of New Ironsides while small
arms fire from the Federal ship spattered the water around the torpedo
boat.
Believing that their vessel was sinking, Glassell
and two others abandoned her; the pilot, Walker Cannon, who could not swim,
remained on board. A short time later, Assistant Engineer J. H. Tomb swam
back to the craft and climbed on board. Rekindling the fires, Tomb succeeded
in getting David's engine working again, and with Cannon at the wheel,
the torpedo boat steamed up the channel to safety. Glassell and Seaman
James Sullivan, David's fireman, were captured. New Ironsides, though not
sunk, was damaged by the explosion. US Navy casualties were Acting Ensign
C.W.Howard (died of gunshot wound), Seaman William L. Knox (legs broken)
and Master at Arms Thomas Little (contusions).
The wreck of the CSS David |
The next 4 months of David's existence are obscure.
She or other torpedo boats tried more attacks on Union blockaders; reports
from different ships claim three such attempts, all unsuccessful, during
the remainder of October 1863. On March 6, 1864, David attacked USS Memphis
in the North Edisto River. The torpedo boat struck the blockader first
on the port quarter, but the torpedo did not explode. Memphis slipped her
chain, at the same time firing ineffectively at David with small arms.
Putting about, the torpedo boat struck Memphis again, this time a glancing
blow on the starboard quarter; once more the torpedo misfired. Since Memphis
had now opened up with her heavy guns, David, having lost part of her stack
when rammed, retreated up the river out of range. Memphis, uninjured, resumed
her blockading station. |
David's last confirmed action came on April 18, 1864
when she tried to sink the screw frigate USS Wabash. Alert lookouts on
board the blockader sighted David in time to permit the frigate to slip
her chain, avoid the attack, and open fire on the torpedo boat. Neither
side suffered any damage.
The ultimate fate of David is uncertain. Several
torpedo boats of this type fell into Union hands when Charleston was captured
in February 1865. David may well have been among them.
Photograph of a captured David-class torpedo boat (possibly
CSS David herself), taken after
the fall of Charleston in 1865 |
Wrecks Discovered
January 20, 1998, underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence led a Sea
Research Society expedition, funded by philanthropist Stanley M. Fulton,
to find the remains of the two Confederate torpedo boats shown in various
photos taken shortly after the fall of Charleston. Spence's theory was
that the two vessels, had been abandoned where they lay and were simply
filled over as the city expanded. Spence used still existing houses in
the pictures to triangulate where they might be. Using a ground penetrating
radar, operated by Claude E. "Pete" Petrone of National Geographic Magazine,
the expedition located two radar anomalies consistent with what would be
expected of the two wrecks. The |
anomalies were under present-day Tradd Street, so no excavation was done.
A post-war letter written by David C. Ebaugh, who supervised the construction
of the David, described it as abandoned at what was then the foot of Tradd
Street. |