Our navy in time of war (1861-1898) . on deck or near the companion ways tothe decks was lost. Only forty-three officers and menwere saved, and sixty-two officers and men were killedor drowned. Every care had been taken against suchan accident. Small boats had searched the very placewhere the Patapsco was sunk, and several large ves-sels had passed over the spot. The Southern officers inCharleston had watched the course that the Patapscoand other vessels took in their nightly picket duty,and in the darkness of the night before the explosionhad placed a torpedo in the path that the Patapscowoul
Our navy in time of war (1861-1898) . on deck or near the companion ways tothe decks was lost. Only forty-three officers and menwere saved, and sixty-two officers and men were killedor drowned. Every care had been taken against suchan accident. Small boats had searched the very placewhere the Patapsco was sunk, and several large ves-sels had passed over the spot. The Southern officers inCharleston had watched the course that the Patapscoand other vessels took in their nightly picket duty,and in the darkness of the night before the explosionhad placed a torpedo in the path that the Patapscowould take. The torpedo was set off by electricitythe moment the Patapsco was over it. After Port Fisher had been taken. Admiral Por-ters fleet went up the Cape Fear Piver to help cap-ture Wilmington, N. C. The river was full of tor-pedoes, but good fortune followed the work of Porterymen in finding them and exploding them. Just beforethe vessels of the fleet reached Wilmington more thantwo hundred floating torpedoes were sent down the. ,0 5 03 CO -^ P^ 15 204 OUR NAVY TN TIME OF WAR. river against the vessels. Picket boats in advance ofthe fleet sent up a signal, and all the small boats of theships were sent out in a hurry to gather up the tor-pedoes as they came down. It was dangerous of the torpedoes were guided clear of the vesselsand were exploded by shooting into them. One of thesmall boats engaged in the work was destroyed andfour men were killed and wounded. Fish nets werespread across the rivet* the next day, and there wasno more trouble from the floating torpedoes. On March 1, 1865, Admiral Dahlgren set out earlyinutile morning Avith his flagship, the Harvest Moon,from Georgetown, S. C, to go to Charleston had not gone more than three miles below thecity when an explosion like that of the bursting ofa boiler was heard. There was great confusion atonce, and in a few moments the Harvest Moon wason the bottom. Only one life was lost in this disaster. Alth
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectunitedstatesnavy
