754 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



zm the night of the 17th of February, 1864, she set out froir 

 Sullivan's Island, to which place she had run from her anchor- 

 age, to attack the blockading fleet, carrying a torpedo affixed 

 to her bowsprit. 



During the whole night the bombardment of the city was 

 kept up, and nothing was heard of the fish boat. The next 

 morning a heavy fog hung over the coast, clearing up about 

 eight in the morning, and the sloop-of-war Housatonic was 

 discovered to be sunk in about six fathoms of water, her crew 

 swarming in her rigging for safety. The fish boat had de- 

 stroyed her, and destroyed herself in doing so. This was the 

 first time that she had ever been used in exploding a torpedo, 

 and the cause of her destruction is supposed to have been as 

 follows: The weight of the torpedo, on her bowsprit, was 

 balanced by the shifting ballast in her stern, and thus she was 

 kept on an even keel. As soon, however, as the torpedo struck 

 and exploded, the balance was destroyed, her bows were lifted 

 by the weight in the stern, control was lost of her, and the 

 Housatonic, sinking from the damage done her by the explo- 

 sion, settled upon the " fish boat" and carried her and her crew 

 to the bottom. 



Disastrous as these attempts at submarine navigation were, 

 yet they are the most successful yet made. We have seen 

 else where that men have, for other purposes than war, been 

 able to descend under the surface of the sea, and stay there 

 quite a time without injury ; but their appliances are not ves 

 sels intended for navigation. 



Let us turn, then, from this record of how human ingenuity 

 has been taxed to devise means to destroy men, to the conside 

 ration of the new devices made for their comfort or safety in 

 crossing the sea. One of the most useful of these is a life raft 

 or bolsa, one of which is represented in our cut. This con- 

 sists of three elastic cylinders, made of india-rubber cloth, 

 each tweutv-n ve feet long. When empty they are easily packed 



