Editing CSS David

{{short description|Confederate States Navy torpedo boat}}
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|Ship country=Confederate States
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|Ship name=''David''
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'''CSS ''David''''' was an [[American Civil War]]-era [[torpedo boat]]. On October 5, 1863, she undertook a partially successful attack on {{USS|New Ironsides}} which was participating in the blockade of [[Charleston, South Carolina]].

==Construction==
Based upon a design by [[St. Julien Ravenel]], ''David'' was built as a private venture by T. Stoney at Charleston, [[South Carolina]], in 1863, and was put under the control of the [[Confederate States Navy]] (CSN).<ref name="NHHC">{{cite web |title=David |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/david.html |website=Ship Histories - Confederate Ships |publisher=Naval History and Heritage Command, US Navy |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129102709/https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/david.html |archive-date=29 January 2022}}</ref> The cigar-shaped boat carried a {{convert|32|by|10|in|adj=on}} explosive charge of {{convert|134|lb|kg}} gunpowder on the end of a spar projecting forward from her bow.<ref name="NHHC" /> CSS ''David'' operated as a semi-submersible: water was taken into ballast tanks so that only the length of the open-top [[conning tower]] and the stack for the boiler appeared above water.<ref>Tony Gibbons, "Warships and Navy Battles of the Civil War", Gallery Books, W.H. Smith Publishers, 1989. {{ISBN|0-8317-9301-5}}.</ref> Designed to operate very low in the water, ''David'' resembled in general a submersible [[submarine]]; she was, however, strictly a surface vessel.<ref name="NHHC" />  Operating on dark nights, and using [[anthracite]] coal (which burns without smoke), ''David'' was nearly as hard to see as a true submarine.{{citation needed|date = August 2012}}

==Attack on ''New Ironsides''==
[[File:Conrad Wise Chapman - Torpedo Boat David at Charleston Dock, Oct. 25, 1863.jpg|left|thumb|300px|''Torpedo Boat David at Charleston Dock, Oct. 25, 1863'' by [[Conrad Wise Chapman]]]]
On the night of October 5, 1863, ''David'', commanded by [[Lieutenant]] [[William T. Glassell]], CSN, left Charleston Harbor to attack the [[casemate ironclad]] [[Steamboat|steamer]] {{USS|New Ironsides}}. The torpedo boat approached undetected until she was within {{convert|50|yd}} of the blockader. Hailed by the watch on board ''New Ironsides'', Glassell replied with a blast from a shotgun and ''David'' plunged ahead to strike. Her [[spar torpedo]] detonated under the [[starboard]] quarter of the ironclad, throwing high a column of water which rained back upon the Confederate vessel and put out her boiler fires. Her engine dead, ''David'' hung under the quarter of ''New Ironsides'' while small arms fire from the Federal ship spattered the water around the torpedo boat.<ref name="NHHC" />

Believing that their vessel was sinking, Glassell and two others abandoned her; the pilot, [[Walker Cannon]], who could not swim, remained on board. A short time later, Assistant Engineer [[J. H. Tomb]] swam back to the craft and climbed on board. Rekindling the fires, Tomb succeeded in getting ''David''{{'}}s engine working again, and with Cannon at the wheel, the torpedo boat steamed up the channel to safety. Glassell and [[Seaman (rank)|Seaman]] James Sullivan, ''David''{{'}}s fireman, were captured. ''New Ironsides'', though not sunk, was damaged by the explosion.<ref name="NHHC" /> US Navy casualties were Acting Ensign C.W.Howard (died of gunshot wound), Seaman William L. Knox (legs broken) and Master at Arms Thomas Little (contusions).<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079893842&view=1up&seq=3 Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I - Volume 15: South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (October 1, 1863 - September 30, 1864) Author: United States. Naval War Records Office], [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079893842&view=1up&seq=40&skin=2021&q1=Thomas%20little page 18]: Abstract log of USS Ironsides, October 5, 1863</ref>

[[File:CSS David photo.jpg|left|thumb|Photograph of a captured ''David''-class torpedo boat (possibly CSS ''David'' herself), taken after the fall of Charleston in 1865]]
[[File:CSSDavidWreck.jpg|left|thumb|The wreck of CSS ''David'']]
The next four months of ''David''{{'}}s existence are obscure. She or other torpedo boats tried more attacks on Union blockaders; reports from different ships claim three such attempts, all unsuccessful, during the remainder of October 1863. On March 6, 1864, ''David'' attacked {{USS|Memphis|1862|6}} in the [[North Edisto River]]. The torpedo boat struck the blockader first on the port quarter, but the torpedo did not explode. ''Memphis'' slipped her chain, at the same time firing ineffectively at ''David'' with small arms. Putting about, the torpedo boat struck ''Memphis'' again, this time a glancing blow on the starboard quarter; once more the torpedo misfired. Since ''Memphis'' had now opened up with her heavy guns, ''David'', having lost part of her stack when rammed, retreated up the river out of range. ''Memphis'', undamaged, resumed her blockading station.<ref name="NHHC" />

''David''{{'}}s last confirmed action came on April 18, 1864 when she tried to sink the [[screw frigate]] {{USS|Wabash|1855|6}}. Alert lookouts on board the blockader sighted ''David'' in time to permit the frigate to slip her chain, avoid the attack, and open fire on the torpedo boat. Neither side suffered any damage.<ref name="NHHC" />

The ultimate fate of ''David'' is uncertain. Several torpedo boats of this type fell into Union hands when Charleston was captured in February 1865. ''David'' may well have been among them.<ref name="NHHC" />

==Wrecks discovered==
On January 20, 1998, underwater archaeologist Dr. [[E. Lee Spence]] led a [[Sea Research Society]] expedition, funded by philanthropist Stanley M. Fulton, to find the remains of the two Confederate torpedo boats shown in various photos taken shortly after the fall of Charleston. Spence's theory was that the two vessels had been abandoned where they lay and were simply filled over as the city expanded.<ref>''Treasures of the Confederate Coast: the "real Rhett Butler" & Other Revelations'' by Dr. [[E. Lee Spence]], (Narwhal Press, Charleston/Miami, 1995), {{ISBN|1-886391-00-9}}, p. 375</ref> Spence used still existing houses in the pictures to triangulate where they might be. Using a ground penetrating radar, operated by Claude E. "Pete" Petrone of ''[[National Geographic Magazine]]'', the expedition located two radar anomalies consistent with what would be expected of the two wrecks. The anomalies were under present-day Tradd Street, so no excavation was done.<ref>''Post and Courier'', Charleston, South Carolina, January 21, 1998, Section A, p. 1</ref> A post-war letter written by [[David C. Ebaugh]], who supervised the construction of ''David'', described her as abandoned at what was then the foot of Tradd Street.<ref>''The South Carolina Historical Magazine'', Vol. 54, No. 1 (Jan., 1953), pp. 32-36</ref>
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[[File:CSS David (large).jpg|right|thumb|The large "David"-type steamer at Charleston in 1865]]

==Other "David"s==
"David" came to be the generic term for any torpedo boat resembling this ''David''.<ref name="NHHC" />
An unknown number of torpedo boats of the ''David''-type were built for and operated by the CSN.<ref name="NHHC" /> When Federal forces captured Charleston in February 1865, they found, incomplete, a much larger ''David'', with a length of about {{convert|160|ft|m|abbr=on}} and designed as a cargo-carrying [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade-runner]].<ref name="Large">{{cite web |title=The "Large David" (1865) |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-hl/lg-david.htm |website=Ships of the Confederate States |publisher=Naval Historical Center, US Navy |access-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128214229/https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-hl/lg-david.htm |archive-date=28 January 2022 |location=Washington DC |via=ibiblio.org/hyperwar}}</ref>  This vessel was taken to [[Washington DC]].<ref name="Large" />

==References==
{{portal|American Civil War}}
{{reflist}}

{{CSN torpedo boats}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:David, CSS}}
[[Category:Torpedo boats of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in Charleston, South Carolina]]
[[Category:1863 ships]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1865]]