Work of the Submarines Needs Further Trials (an excerpt)

As the ironclad Merrimac and the turreted Monitor changed war vessels from wooden hulls and broadsides to floating steel fortresses with single and double turrets, so the sinking of the United States corvette Housatonic by the Confederate submarine David demonstrated the possibility of this method of attack.  The David was nothing like the submarines of today, for it was operated by hand-power, and utilized a spar torpedo and was utilized with a portion of the hull exposed.  It is true that two crews were lost in the David before it struck the Housatonic, and that thorough its inability to back away the David went down with its victims, but this is no argument against the employment of submarines in warfare, for the Confederates had no difficulty in obtaining all the crews necessary to operate the David....

"Work of the Submarines Needs Further Trials," Brooklyn Eagle, November 30, 1902, page 11, New York

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