{"id":6455,"date":"2016-05-17T14:11:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T14:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lichen.csd.sc.edu\/sce\/entries\/david\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T19:29:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T19:29:32","slug":"david","status":"publish","type":"entry","link":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/david\/","title":{"rendered":"David"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Confederate torpedo boat <em>David <\/em>was a small, steam-driven, surface vessel armed with a pole-mounted explosive charge called a spar torpedo. David Ebaugh built the <em>David <\/em>at Stoney Landing, on the Cooper River, for the Southern Torpedo Company, a consortium of South Carolina businessmen inspired by a bounty placed on the destruction of Union blockaders off Charleston. Completed in 1863, the unusual-looking craft closely resembled a cigar, with a cylindrical center section and conical ends. It measured forty-eight feet six inches in length and five feet in diameter and was powered by a small double-cylinder engine that turned a single propeller. Amidship a large open hatchway contained the steam machinery and cramped space for four crewmen. Attached to the <em>David <\/em>\u2019s bow was a stationary fourteen-foot-long metal pole with an explosive torpedo containing sixty-five pounds of black powder and four pressure-sensitive fuses. The torpedo exploded when driven into the hull of an enemy warship. Heavily ballasted, the <em>David <\/em>floated low in the water with little more visible than its hatch combing and smokestack.<\/p>\n<p>Commanded by naval lieutenant William T. Glassell, the <em>David <\/em>attacked the USS <em>New Ironsides <\/em>off Charleston on October 5, 1863, but failed to sink the much-feared ironclad when the torpedo exploded too near the water\u2019s surface. Following modifications, the <em>David <\/em>made several more attacks on Union warships, but all proved abortive. Although the <em>David <\/em>failed to sink an enemy vessel, both sides recognized the weapon\u2019s value. The Union navy went to great lengths to protect its blockaders from torpedo attacks, while at Charleston and elsewhere the Confederates commenced numerous other boats of similar design that were generically known as \u201cDavids.\u201d The <em>David <\/em>\u2019s final disposition is unknown, but it was likely one of several torpedo boats found in Charleston after the city\u2019s fall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid C. Ebaugh on the Building of \u2018The David.\u2019\u201d <em>South Carolina Historical Magazine <\/em>54 (January 1953): 32\u201336.<\/p>\n<p>Perry, Milton F. <em>Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare. <\/em>Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965. Tomb, James H. \u201cSubmarines and Torpedo Boats, C.S.N.\u201d <em>Confederate Veteran <\/em>22 (April 1914): 168\u201369.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Confederate torpedo boat David was a small, steam-driven, surface vessel armed with a pole-mounted explosive charge called a spar torpedo. David Ebaugh built the David at Stoney Landing, on the Cooper River, for the Southern Torpedo Company, a consortium of South Carolina businessmen inspired by a bounty placed on the destruction of Union blockaders [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-6455","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-charleston-county","ecms-d","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-lowcountry","ecms-military","ecms-u-s-civil-war-1861-1865"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>David - South Carolina Encyclopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/david\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David - South Carolina Encyclopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Confederate torpedo boat David was a small, steam-driven, surface vessel armed with a pole-mounted explosive charge called a spar torpedo. 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