While technical “wizards” like Dr. St. Julien Ravenel and Theodore Stoney were creating the CSS “David” torpedo boat as the Confederacy’s response to the US Navy’s overwhelming superiority on the nation’s rivers and oceans, the Union wizards were not idle in that field, either.
The Task at Hand.
One was the Chief Engineer of the Navy, Commodore William Wiley Wood. An acknowledged master of marine design, Wood‘s task was to design and build a fast, steam-powered screw-driven steamship that could mount and launch not one but several of the Union Navy’s version of the “infernal machine,” the torpedo. Called the “Stromboli” after the notable Italian volcano, Wood supervised the boats construction at the New Haven, CT shipyard of Mr. Samuel Moore Pook of Boston, Massachusetts.
Early in the Civil War Pook, a noted naval architect and engineer, had designed the City-class ironclads. Known popularly as the “Pook Turtles,” due to the ironclads’ low profile and vaguely reptilian silhouette, the City-class boats were the muscle of the US Navy’s Western flotilla that won back the Mississippi River and its tributaries for the Union. With Wood’s supervision and Pook’s management, the “Stromboli” was completed and launched in just over three months, a remarkable achievement of naval construction, especially for that time period of the Civil War.
“A vessel so-named should trouble the waters – “
Completed and launched in November of 1864, the “Stromboli” was renamed “Spuyten Duyvil.”
An apt name for a boat built to cause trouble for any enemy navy, the name “Spuyten Duyvil” was originally that bestowed upon the turbulent upper stretch where New York City’s Harlem River joins the Hudson River between the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx.
A folk legend from New York City’s early Dutch or “Knickerbocker” era has the troubling of the East River’s current at Spuyten Duyvil caused by either a “spitting-” or “spouting-” devil in the water. Whichever meaning is correct, the waters at New York’s Spuyten Duyvil remain troubled to this day.
Construction, Propulsion and Displacement
As built, “Spuyten Duyvil” had a length of 84 feet, a beam width of 20 feet and a draft of 7½ feet. Its displacement was 414,000 pounds or about 207 tons.
Built of oak timbers, the boat was covered from its deck to its sides with iron plating ranging in thickness from 3 inches on its deck to five inches on its hull. The ship’s helm and pilothouse was enclosed in twelve layers of 1-inch thick iron plating, making it weigh some 12 tons alone. Motive power was provided by a custom-designed four-bladed propeller connected to two coal-fired reciprocating steam engines. The boat had stowage for 160 tons of coal. Using anthracite coal from Pennsylvania was the coal of choice as it gave off no smoke when burned. Underway, it was remarked that the “Spuyten Duyvil’s” engines were very quiet when operating.
A unique feature of the “Spuyten Duyvi” was that the boat’s draft and pitch could be adjusted through a system of ballast pumps and tanks positioned within the hull. In some cases, the boat could have its draft lowered so that its convex upper deck was mere inches from the surface of the water, rendering discovery by the enemy very difficult.
Putting the “Infernal” in Infernal Machine
The “Spuyten Duyvil’s” primary weapon can only be described as a torpedo projector, a device for aligning and then positioning an explosive torpedo either alongside or beneath the hull of an enemy ship.
An eight-inch diameter tube occupied the forward portion of the “Spuyten Duyvil’s” hull,along with a pair of powerful pumps used for adjusting the boat’s pitch for optimal placement of the boat and the torpedo tube itself. The tube could extend through a pair of watertight shutters set in the bow of the “Spuyten Duyvil,” that could be opened and closed simultaneously with the act of deploying the torpedo tube for attack. At the bow of the boat, inside the torpedo tube was a hatch. Upon opening, the hatch gave access for the placement of an armed torpedo within the tube prior to “firing.”
A winch drawing its power from the boat’s steam engines provided the motive power to most the torpedo tube as close as possible to the target. Once targeted, the torpedo tube’s winch propelled the torpedo down its length and out the mouth of the tube, much in the manner of a pea fired from a pea shooter, and towards the targeted enemy vessel.
As the front-heavy torpedo begins its nose-dive towards the sea bed, a ball bearing inside the torpedo itself slides form the rear of the torpedo and makes contact with the trigger mechanism inside. This causes the torpedo to explode, sending a powerful blast and shockwave into the bottom of the targeted ship’s hull. This blast overpressure combined with that of the water displaced by the ship is enough to shatter any ship’s hull. However, the neat part of this torpedo tube’s operation is that it can be reloaded from inside the boat for a second try, and up to four tries more for a total of six, If needed.
Truly, this devil has something to “spit” (or “spout”) about.
Civil War history.
Launched in September of 1864, the “Spuyten Duyvil” completed sea trials in November of the same year. It was placed under the command of Commodore T.A. Domin, who designated Assistant Engineer John Lay as the boat’s acting captain, who delivered “Spuyten Duyvil” to the North Atlantic Blockade Squadron at Hampton Roads, VA. Posted to Akins Landing on the James River, “Spuyten Duyvil” patrolled her portion while also checking any Confederate obstructions or torpedo batteries; removing or destroying those that blocked the river’s main channel.
The notable naval action that “Spuyten Duyvil” participated in was repelling the attack of the Confederate Navy’s James River Squadron in the Naval Battle of Trent’s Reach on January 24th & 25th 1865. “Spuyten Duyvil” provided support to the USS “Onondaga,” the Union Navy’s only capital ship present at the battle. With “Spuyten Duyvil’s” assistance, “Onondaga” first stopped and then drove off the Confederate vessels.
Aftermath
After the Civil War, USS “Spuyten Duyvil” continued to patrol the James River, using her torpedoes to assist in the removal of the numerous obstructions that remained.
In 1866, she returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York and “mothballed,” though her career was anything but “ordinary.” Over the next fifteen years, “Spuyten Duyvil” found work as a testbed for many different experiments in naval design and engineering.
“Spuyten Duyvil’s” name vanished from the Navy Registry in 1880, and no more has been heard of her since.
(Note: All graphic images of “Infernal Machine” game materials used in this series of articles are subjective and may change and appear different in their final form. All images show sourcing unless otherwise noted.)
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Author: Edward Ostermeyer
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