750 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



were pointed, is thus described : She was thirty feet long and 

 six feet broad, painted a lead color. Her propelling power 

 consisted of a six-horse engine, geared to a shaft turning a pro- 

 peller. At her bow was an iron bowsprit, so arranged that it 

 could be lowered to the required depth, and ai the end of this 

 the torpedo was secured. When afloat only about fifteen feet 

 of her length projected some fourteen inches above the water. 

 For fuel she used anthracite coal, and attained a speed of about 

 six miles an hour! Her tonnage was about seven or eight tons, 

 and in this craft Lieutenant Glassells, of Virginia, volunteered 

 to attack the iron-clad, the Ironsides, which was the most pow- 

 erful ship at that time afloat in the navy, rated at from three 

 to four thousand tons. The Ironsides was a very heavily armed 

 ship, provided with eleven-inch guns, and capable of delivering 

 the heaviest broadside ever fired from a single ship. On the 

 night of the sixth of October, 1863, Lieutenant Glassells set 

 out on his expedition from one of the wharves of Charleston. 

 The sky was covered with clouds, and the night was very dark. 

 Ffis crew consisted of a fireman and a pilot, and his offensive 

 armament of a torpedo, in position, and a double-barreled fowl- 

 ing-piece. Being asked why he carried a gun on such an ex- 

 pedition, be answered: "You know I have served in the 

 United States navv, and I shall not attack my old comrades 

 like an assassin. I shall hail and fire into them, with this, then 

 let the torpedo do its work like an open and declared foe." 

 This speech is a fair specimen of the singular mixture of honor 

 and disloyalty which characterized the whole secession move- 

 ment. This lieutenant could desert his navy, could take up 

 arms against his country, but could not attack one of its ships 

 without first giving its crew warning. 



The "cigar boat " steamed silently on its course until within 

 about fifty yards of the Ironsides, without being discovered. 

 Everything on the immense ship seemed as quiet as the grave 

 Suddenly, in the still night, the lieutenant cries, " Ship ahoy I" 



