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History 1869-2010

141 Years of Undersea Warfare

As a result of the American Civil War, armored ships, steam power plants, mines, spar torpedoes, explosive shells, and various other technological innovations, including the submarine, had been introduced as radical new concepts in conducting naval warfare. The Confederate submersible, CSS Hunley, was the first submarine built for deep submergence, and she was powered by eight men working a hand-cranked propeller.

David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) and other Navy visionaries were concerned about the impact that emerging technologies would have on future naval warfare. In 1869, when Admiral Porter became the Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, he actively campaigned for the creation of an experimental station to conduct hands-on experiments with torpedoes, mines, explosives, and electrical devices to determine how these new technologies should be employed.

The Fish torpedo, the Navy's first self-propelled torpedo, was built by the Naval Torpedo Station in 1871. The design was based on the physical characteristics of the Whitehead torpedo designed by the Englishman Robert Whitehead in Fuime Austria.

The Naval Torpedo Station as it appeared in 1880 on Goat Island in Newport. The amount of torpedo hardware being generated was rapidly increasing, and during the first three decades of its existence, the torpedo station found itself in a race to build new physical facilities fast enough to keep up with expanding torpedo program requirements.

Up through the mid-1880's, the commanding officers at the Naval Torpedo Station were hand-picked by Admiral Porter, most having served with him during the Civil War. An impressive number of these early officers achieved flag rank later in their careers, including Admiral Dewey, the hero of Manila Bay; Admiral Sampson, who defeated the Spanish at Havana; and Admiral Fletcher, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for commanding naval forces at Vera Cruz in 1914. They and many others will long be remembered for their pioneering efforts in establishing the world's first torpedo activity. Their innovations, goals and strategies initiated a century of progress in undersea naval power.

Storage room for torpedoes at the Naval Torpedo Station. The torpedo station issued weapons to the Fleet as they were needed.

The Herreshoff spar torpedo boat LIGHTNING docked at the Naval Torpedo Station.



The spar torpedo, used with some success during the Civil War, consisted of an explosive charge fastened to the end of a spar secured to a boat. Rigged in this way, the spar torpedo could be projected forward or abeam and lowered well below the waterline of an enemy ship.

This machine was used to pick apart raw English cotton, the first step in producing guncotton (used prior to 1900). The Naval Torpedo Station was the first major contributor in the development and production of new high-energy explosives for the U.S. Navy. The results obtained with nitroglycerin and dynamite were spectacular, but due to the shock sensitivity and instability of these compounds, guncotton appeared to be a wiser choice for volume production and fleet use.

The second step to processing guncotton, the nitration process, was known as the nitrate bath. The cotton (nitrate/cellulose) was washed and carried to the next building for the final step in the process.

The Cunningham rocket torpedo, designed by a New Bedford Shoemaker (circa 1893), was tested for several years at the Naval Torpedo Station. Lack of accuracy and wide variations in speed were major problems which kept early rocket torpedoes in the experimental stages.

The Howell Torpedo was the first automobile torpedo issued to the fleet. It had a range of 400 yards at a speed of 25 knots and a maximum range of 700 yards. The warhead charge was 100 pounds of guncotton. Just prior to launching, a 130-pound flywheel in the torpedo was spun to 10,000 rpm by a slip-mounted steam engine.In the mid-1880's, the Navy initiated the design and procurement of a new class of steel-hulled fleet torpedo boats to employ the new Howell torpedo. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in Bristol, RI, was selected to build the first of these sea-going vessels.

The new torpedo boats were named the CUSHING class in honor of the Civil War hero Lieutenant William B. Cushing who sank the Confederate iron-clad warship ALBEMARLE with a spar torpedo. Shown here is the USS STILETTO, the first of its class, purchased by the Naval Torpedo Station.

The Holland submarine, designed and built by J.P. Holland, was purchased by the Navy in early 1900 for $120,000. For armament she carried a nitroglycerin gun and one torpedo tube with five Whitehead torpedoes.



Training continued at the Naval Torpedo Station during the early 1900's. Both officers and enlisted men were instructed in a wide range of technical subjects including torpedoes, diving, mines, gun-control systems, torpedo boat and submarine operations, and countermining.

The Naval Torpedo Station on Goat Island in 1910. The activity had greatly expanded to support its involvement in torpedo production.

Theodore Roosevelt comes ashore at the Naval Training Station in 1913.

The Naval Torpedo Station as it appeared in 1920. The torpedo station grew dramatically during World War I, and provided the resident expertise and facilities required to respond to the Navy's urgent wartime operational needs. During the war, thousands of Naval personnel were trained in the use of weapons, over 1000 torpedoes were manufactured, and hundreds of primers, fuses, bombs, and explosive devices were produced. The Naval Torpedo Station also responded to urgent demands to develop depth bombs and mines that played a significant role in bringing the U-boat campaign under control.

The need for primers significantly increased during World War I. and their fabrication was a delicate, labor-intensive effort. During the war, production was over 200,000 primers per year, and over 3200 people were employed to produce them. Of the 3200 employees, 300 were women, and they demonstrated superior skill and dexterity in the delicate hand work needed to produce primers. With women in the factory, primer output increased from 5000 per week to 8000 per day. Women averaged more than six times the output of men. No wonder the Naval Torpedo Station was an early equal opportunity employer.

During World War II, the new Gould Island firing range proved its worth as over 75,000 torpedoes were proof-fired by the Naval Torpedo Station in support of the Navy's torpedo programs. At left, Naval Torpedo Station personnel hard at work testing and proofing torpedoes


The Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory in New London, Connecticut, (1945 - 1970) the center of sonar development for both surface ships and submarines, was a predecessor organization of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport.
Click here to read more about the original Commanders of the Naval Torpedo Station
"That the Torpedo is destined to be used by all nations in future wars is certain...It is therefore our duty to keep pace with other maritime powers in everything relating to development and use of this dangerous and destructive element of warfare."
                                                -Report of the Secretary of Navy, 1869
 


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