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for a similar device). The spring-loaded trigger was detonated by means of a long cord attached to the attacking vessel. The attacking vessel rammed its target, embedding the barbed torpedo in its hull, then backed off. When the attacker reached the limit of the trigger cord, the torpedo was
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employed a spar torpedo, but not with a barbed attachment to the target. Owing to an innovative directable and extensible spar, this craft could release a slightly buoyant mine underneath the target, which would be exploded by the means described above. (This craft was not employed against
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Spar torpedoes were also used on small wooden launches in the late 19th century, although they were not very useful weapons. The locomotive torpedo (the contemporary term for the modern self-propelled
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had written about submarine (i.e., subsurface) marine torpedoes in 1810, and experiments were conducted using spar torpedoes that year. Boats carrying spar torpedoes were used during the
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168:. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to
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was the Union navy's only successful sinking of a
Confederate vessel by torpedo. Lieutenant Cushing employed a spar torpedo designed by
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11th
Congress, 3d session, illus. (In: American State Papers, Washington, 1834, v. 14, Naval affairs, v. 1, pp. 234-244.
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Spar torpedoes were also used by
Romanian forces during the country's war of independence. On May 26, 1877, the craft
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Experiments on the practical use of the torpedo, communicated to the House of
Representatives, February 14, 1811.
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A weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat
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Perhaps the most famous use of spar torpedoes during the U.S. Civil War was by the
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483:"A daring Confederate night attack on the Union fleet off Newport News Point"
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Torpedo: The
Complete History of the World's Most Revolutionary Naval Weapon
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French admiral
Courbet made good use of two spar torpedo boats at the
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Confederate targets, but was used to clear wreckage from rivers.)
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employed a spar torpedo to sink the
Confederate ironclad ram
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placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a
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on August 23, 1884, which sank the flagship of the
Chinese
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A steamboat with a spar torpedo, in transport position
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Explosive charge lashed to the boom of a spar torpedo
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Results of a French test of a spar torpedo in 1877.
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443:"The Battle of Mobile Bay: "Damn the Torpedoes!""
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250:was lost. Spar torpedoes were also used by the
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516:Brassey's Annual; the Armed Forces Year-book
310:) replaced the spar torpedo as a weapon for
273:At night on October 27–28, 1864, Lieutenant
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109:Learn how and when to remove this message
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204:, constructed a spar torpedo during the
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519:, Praeger Publishers, 1888, p. 489
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384:Spar torpedoes were superseded by the
295:The semi-submersible 1864 Union craft
472:. Naval History and Heritage Command.
405:Torpedo War, and Submarine Explosions
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432:, p. 18. Seaforth Publishing (2014).
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