CHAPTER XIV.
Torpedo Warfare—Maury Invents an electric torpedo for Harbour and Land Defence—Indifference on the part of the authorities—Maury's experiment—He mines the James River—Maury's plans and drawings fall into the hands of the enemy—Panic caused by fear of torpedoes in the Federal Fleet—Maury on the necessity for a Confederate Navy—The whole South arming for defence—Maury's two sons become volunteers—
Colonel R. L. Maury shot through the, body— Lieutenant J. H. Maury slain at Vicksburg.
Maury in England—Orders from the Confederate Secretary of the Navy to proceed to England—Leaves Charleston with his youngest son—Maury organizes a society in England to promote cessation of hostilities—Petition to the United States for peace—Letter from a chronometer-maker offering Maury a home—Letters about his son at school in England, and on news from home—Congratulation to the Archduke Maximilian on going to Mexico.
Torpedo warfare was re-introduced to the world by our civil war, and it was the practical mind of Maury which appreciated its power and developed its efficiency. The Federal Secretary of the Navy (in his Report, December 4th, 1865) stated that, during the war, their "navy lost more vessels by torpedoes than from all other causes whatever."
In pursuance of his plan for torpedo defence, Maury, soon after his arrival in Richmond, sent an agent to New York to purchase a quantity of insulating wire. The agent was foiled in his mission, and returned empty-handed.
There was neither wire-factory nor insulating material in the South, and though an establishment for the manufacture of the former was soon put in operation, yet, all the Southern ports having been placed under blockade, it was impossible to obtain either gutta-percha or india-rubber from abroad,
