"Torpedo"
Fulton experimented with a “torpedo” he believed would end wars. "Gunpowder within the last three hundred years has totally changed the art of war, and all my reflections have led me to believe that this application of it, will in a few years put a stop to maritime wars."
(Robert Fulton 1805). Fulton was the first to use "torpedo" to describe a gunpowder device exploded beneath ships. His torpedoes were really floating mines because self-propulsion was not possible in 1800. "Mr. Fulton did not pretend to have been the first who discovered that gunpowder might be exploded with effect under water; nor did he pretend to have been the first who attempted to apply it as the means of hostility." (Cadwallader Colden 1817) |
Fulton’s torpedoes were a turning point, proving they were practical weapons of destruction by sinking the ships Chaloupe in 1801 and Dorothea in 1805. "You have now seen the effect of the explosion of powder under the bottom of a vessel ; and this, I believe, is the best, and most simple mode of using it with the greatest effect in marine wars; for a right application of one torpedo will annihilate a ship, nor leave a man to relate the dreadful catastrophe" (Robert Fulton 1805). His torpedo was a starting point for future advances.
Fulton's original sketches from Torpedo War, and Submarine Explosions
Fulton designed ways to deliver torpedoes to enemy ships. He developed an underwater cannon and floating mine for the U.S. Navy. Many officers did not like Fulton's "Torpedo". Some thought he would take money away from their budget. Others thought it was wrong not to give warning. "But men, without reflecting,... exclaim, that it is barbarous to blow up a ship with all her crew. This I admit, and lament that it should be necessary; but all wars are barbarous, and particularly wars of offence. .. If Torpedoes should prevent such acts of violence; the invention must be humane.” (Robert Fulton 1810)
The War of 1812 made his ideas more popular. "Upon the whole, I view this application of powder, as one of the most important military discoveries which some centuries have produced. It appears to me to be capable of effecting the absolute security of your ports against naval aggression..." (General Morgan Lewis 1810)
"The time a new discovery is made in physics or mathematical science, the whole of its consequences cannot be foreseen. …Hence I conclude, that it is now impossible to foresee to what degree Torpedoes may be improved and rendered useful." (Robert Fulton 1810)