Confederate Coal Torpedo: Thomas Courtenay’s Infernal Sabotage Weapon
Joseph M. and Thomas H. Thatcher; Kenerly Press
Books have been devoted to ironclads, observation balloons, rifled artillery, repeating rifles and the Gatling gun, but relatively little has appeared on torpedoes, the underground or underwater explosives devised mostly by the Rebels in their quest for an “equalizer” against the Union’s overwhelming numbers of men and weapons. The father-and-son team of Joseph M. and Thomas H. Thatcher has narrowed the focus even more with Confederate Coal Torpedo.
Family records left behind by his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Courtenay, inspired Joseph and his son to document the torpedo concept devised by Courtenay: a cast-iron shell resembling a lump of coal and packed with explosives, intended to be hidden in fuel stores. Shoveled into the furnaces of Union warships, the “coal shells” would explode, scattering hot coals across decks. They are known to have damaged the gunboat Chenango and caused fires aboard Union Maj. Gen. Ben Butler’s flagship, Greyhound (see “Simple. Cheap. Deadly.” in the December 2011 issue). The Thatchers’ work sheds an extraordinary amount of light on a shadowy weapon.
Originally published in the February 2012 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
