Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

[803] several fuses were gathered together. A number of experiments were made with this clockwork device, and they worked perfectly. Three sets of apparatus were to be taken lest some disorder of the machinery of one might hinder the proper discharge of the powder. In case they all should fail from any unforeseen contingency, then, in order to prevent this quantity of powder from falling into the hands of the enemy, a fire was to be built on the forecastle of the vessel, which, by its burning, should at last reach and destroy the powder. But this was to be done, not with any expectation that it would cause a proper explosion, but only as a means of the destruction of the powder without beneficial results.¹

It was vitally necessary to any success of the explosion that the boat should be in substantial contact with the earth in order to give the explosion effect. It is well known that when a torpedo is exploded in the water with a few feet of water as a cushion between it and the vessel to be destroyed, the effect will be to take from the explosion substantially all its destructive force, and the vessel by that means will escape uninjured.

I have stated with care what was to be done to render this explosion a success. Now, what was done and what left undone?

First, there were but two hundred and fifteen tons of powder put aboard instead of three hundred tons, the amount relied upon.

Second, the illustration given will show the storage of powder as it was ordered to be made, and as it was not made. The hold was to be left empty. The whole of the deck-house was to be filled, and the fuses laid and connected with candles which were to burn a certain time, of which six were prepared. The whole of the powder was to be put as high up as practicable, so as to be as far from the water as possible.

Third, the Gomez fuses were not used at all, but were left hanging up in coils in the cabin at the time of the explosion.

Fourth, the clockwork devices for exploding the powder were not used.

Fifth, the fire was not even built on the forecastle or the forward part of the deck, as it was proposed to be and ought to have been built, but was built in the stern under the cabin of the vessel.

Sixth, the vessel was not run on shore at all, so that it could not sink by the explosion in the water, and the powder drowned out,