Infernal machine

“Infernal machine designed by the Confederates to destroy the Federal Flotilla in the Potomac discovered by Captain budd of the steamer “Resolute.” An infernal machine designed by the Confederates to blow up the “Pawnee” and the vessels of the Potomac flotilla, which was set adrift near Aquia Creek, was picked up on the 7th of July, 1861, floating toward the “Pawnee.” The following description of the article was sent to the Navy Department: “Two large eighty-gallon oil casks, perfectly watertight, acting as buoys, connected by twenty-five fathoms of three-and-a-half-inch-rope, buoyed with large squares of cork, every two feet secured to casks by iron handles. A heavy bomb of boiler iron, fitted with a brass tap and filled with powder, was suspended to the casks six feet under water. On top of the cask was a wooden box, with fuse in a gutta-percha tube. In the centre of the cork was a platform with a great length of fuse coiled away, occupying the middle of the cask.” — Frank Leslie, 1896

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