SPAR AND TORPEDO

Hunley’s five-metre spar was tipped with a torpedo filled with black powder, designed to produce a catastrophic explosion after being rammed into the hull of a Union warship below the waterline. The weapon worked during the attack on the US

Navy sloop of war Housatonic, but Hunley did not survive its only combat mission, probably disabled by the same explosion that sank Housatonic on the night of 17 February 1864.