A Confederate Sub Eludes Yankee Fire
A Year After the Hunley Went Down, the St. Patrick Tried Again
Jun 5, 2009
The Mobile-built CSS Hunley is remembered as the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. It sent the USS Housatonic to the bottom of Charleston Harbor on Feb. 17, 1864.
Subs in Mobile Bay
But the Hunley wasn’t the only submarine to see action during the Civil War. Underwater boats, dubbed “infernal machines” by Union sailors, also figured in the struggle to capture Mobile following the Battle of Mobile Bay.That epic naval battle was made famous by the words imputed to Adm. David Farragut: “Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!”
After Farragut’s fleet successfully dared the torpedoes and ran the guns of Fort Morgan at the entrance to Mobile Bay in August 1864, a garrison at Spanish Fort stood as one of the last shields for the city of Mobile.
To resupply the garrison, packet boats had to make the passage from Mobile, using darkness to shield them from the guns of the federal fleet.
Aiming at the Light
A lighted channel marker helped point the way, but it also aided the enemy. Union gunners learned to train their weapons on the light. When it would disappear, they’d know a Confederate vessel was passing in front of it, and they would open fire.
What Mobile’s defenders needed at that point was a submarine. Believe it or not, they had one.
CSS St. Patrick Does the Job
The CSS St. Patrick had been built in Selma and brought down the Alabama River to Mobile the previous year. Like the Hunley, it brandished a long spar jutting from its nose, with an explosive charge at the tip.
While the Union fleet threatened the city, the boat became immobilized by a bureaucratic squabble between the Confederate army and navy.
A Stab at the Octorara
On the night of Jan. 27, 1865 - nearly a year after the Hunley sank the Housatonic -- the St. Patrick aimed its deadly spar at the USS Octorara. The sub delivered its torpedo, but the explosive failed to go off, and the St. Patrick slunk back to its base.
In early April of 1865, the St. Patrick was put to work ferrying ordnance to Spanish Fort.
Sidney Schell, long-time chairman of the board of the Museum of Mobile, conjectured that the St. Patrick was a steam-powered vessel that could be propelled by a hand-cranked screw while it was submerged.
Ducking Under the Light
Hence, it could steam out to the vicinity of the channel marker, douse its boiler fire, submerge, and proceed under hand power until it was safely beyond the light.
It was appropriate that a submarine should play a useful, if futile, role in the defense of Mobile.
"Mobile is the birthplace of submarine warfare, without a doubt," said Mark Ragan, author of two books on Civil War submarines. He spoke by telephone from his home in Annapolis, Md.
Schell agreed. More submarines were designed and built there during the Civil War than in any other city in the country, he said.
Hunley's Demise Not Inevitable
The Mobile-built Hunley demonstrated the gravity of the threat that these vessels posed. The little Hunley blew a fatal hole in the USS Housatonic offshore from Charleston. The Hunley itself went to the bottom soon afterward, dooming its eight-man crew. But there was nothing inevitable about its sinking. After all, the St. Patrick made a similar foray the following year and got away safely, even though it didn't accomplish its mission.
