19 November 2022

Good afternoon, everyone.

Ed Ostermeyer here.

Several readers have requested information on the works I’ve used in the design of “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare.

Herewith is my bibliography (current as of 19 November 2022) for the game, alphabetized and annotated for your use.

Comments and remarks are my own opinions on the indicated text’s usefulness, ease of same, and value as a source.

So, here you go: 

News of the CSS “Squib” torpedo boat’s semi-success in its attack on the Union Navy’s Squadron anchored at Hampton Roads, Virginia met with enthusiastic response from the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory.

The years 1863 and 1864 were a busy time for Southern inventors interested in creating a weapon that would give the Confederacy parity of a sort with the much larger and more numerous naval vessels of the United States Navy.

Undoubtedly, when inventors such as Charleston’s Dr. St. Julien Ravenel and Theodore Stoney created their CSS “David” torpedo boat, it was thoughts in equal part of both profit and patriotism that guided their minds and hands.

In my ongoing research for “Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare,” I have made the acquaintance of a number of very interesting people, not only in my current era, but also from the American Civil War period.

The mid-19th Century is one of the most interesting periods of human endeavor.

The Industrial Revolution, filled with promise and with might, was still underway.

During this period, you would occasionally get one spark of intellect and genius that would shine brighter than its neighbors.

Of course like the proverb says, “The spark that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”

Such a spark was a man with the name of William G. Cheeney.

Strangling the Rebel Capital

Ever since the Union navy had retaken Norfolk, Virginia, Union gunboats had been prowling the James River to within seven miles of the Confederacy’s capital city of Richmond. 

I propose to you a new arm of war, as formidable as it is economical.

Submarine navigation, which has been sometimes attempted, but as all know without results, owing to want of suitable opportunities, is now a problematical thing no more.”

(French nautical designer Brutus de Villeroi, in a letter to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.)

Though the “H.L. Hunley” is widely known as the first submarine to sink an enemy warship in combat, it was by no means the only submarine to come out of the American Civil War. The construction team headed by James McClintock and Baxter Watson who built the “Hunley” had already completed and tested two other designs for underwater vessels. Though there were other designs created and built south of the Mason-Line, they were by no means the only submersibles being built in North America in the 1860’s.