This Confederate torpedo was one of several placed in the Tennessee River to impede passage of Union ships.

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This Confederate torpedo was one of several placed in the Tennessee River to impede passage of Union ships. The labels represent: A. the shell of the torpedo; B. air chamber, made of sheet zinc, and tightly fastened; C. a chamber, or sack, containing gunpowder; D. a pistol with the mussel in the powder, having its trigger connected with the rod E; rod E has prongs designed to strike the bottom of a vessel in motion in a way that it would operate, by a lever and cord, on the pistol, discharging it in the powder and so exploding the torpedo under the bow of the vessel; E and F are heavy iron bands to which anchors or weights, G and G, are attached. The torpedo was anchored so as to meet a vessel going against the current, the direction indicated by the arrow.

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Size: 3670px × 4950px
Photo credit: © Ivy Close Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1860s, american, blockade, civil, confederacy, confederate, confederates, diagram, forces, river, ships, states, tennessee, torpedo, union, united, vessels, war