JIM BAUMANN wrote:
For a compact but educational overview of torpedo nets..
read here
http://www.gwpda.org/naval/nets.htm Jim I wanted to interject a side note here about the nets. The first use indicated in the link was in England 1873; however you need to go back a few more years to 1861 in the American Civil War for when they were first developed.
Here are a few quotes for your reading pleasure.
"(Summer of 1861)
Mrs. Baker quickly sent a report of the demonstration to Washington. In her report she described the submarine attack she had watched and also mentioned a visit on the following day to the Tredegar Works to see a second boat under construction. This accurate eyewitness account spurred the Navy in Hampton Roads to devise and rig the first anti-submarine nets around their ships. These were simply an arrangement of spars encircling each vessel, from which either heavy nets or chains were suspended to a depth of fourteen feet. It was hoped that an approaching vessel intent upon attaching a torpedo either via diver or spar would be entangled and caught."
http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862submarines.htm"One day in January, 1864 (a month later ) Hunley's towed contact torpedo drifted into the CSS David, however a crewman went in the water and pushed the torpedo away. CSS David would no longer be used as a tow boat. Also, about this time, federal ironclads began the extensive use of chain nets and other passive obstacles to prevent torpedo attack (Hunley was no secret). Hunley would have to focus operations on the wooden blockade fleet farther out to sea (7 miles out). Her base was moved to Breach Inlet, between Sullivan's and Long Islands (now Isle of Palms). Attacks would now be carried out with a torpedo mounted on a seventeen foot iron pole fixed to the bow (similar to the CSS David)."
http://www.charlestonillustrated.com/hunley/hunley.html