MAY 2ND, 1865: Commander Matthew F. Maury sailed from England carrying $40,000 worth of electric torpedo equipment which he was confident could be used to keep Galveston Harbor open for the Confederacy. he had developed what today is known as a controlled mine system during the two and a half years he served in Europe with Commander Bulloch.
It was a harbor defense system consisting of a planted mine field with each mine in a charted position and capable of being separately detonated by closing an electrical circuit from ashore when the target ship is within a mine's lethal range.
Maury, a pioneer in mine warfare as well as oceanography, had devised the system working in close conjunction with British naval engineers. he prophetically appraised the system as being "as effective for defense as ironclads and rifled guns are for the attack....I feel justified in the opinion that hereafter in all plans for coast, harbor, and river defense...the electrical torpedo is to play an important part."
Upon arriving at Havana, Maury learned of the collapse of the Confederacy and he stored the equipment in the city.
--Those Torps Again. --Old B-Runner
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