Coal torpedo
A coal torpedo. This example was prepared as a model, with
a partial coal dust coating and the plug left out. It was found
in Jeerson Davis' oce by Union General Edward Ripley when
Union forces captured Richmond in April 1865.
The coal torpedo was a hollow iron casting lled with
explosives and covered in coal dust, deployed by the
Confederate Secret Service during the American Civil
War, and intended for doing harm to Union steam trans-
portation. When shoveled into the rebox amongst the
coal, the resulting explosion would at the very least dam-
age the boiler and render the engines inoperable. At
worst, a catastrophic boiler explosion would kill crewmen
and passengers, start a re, or even sink the vessel.
1 Development
The coal torpedo was invented by Capt. Thomas Edge-
worth Courtenay of the Confederate Secret Service.[1][2]
During the Civil War, the term torpedo was used to indi-
cate a wide range of explosive devices including what are
now called land mines, naval mines, improvised explosive
devices, and booby traps. Northern newspapers referred
to Courtenays coal bombs as torpedoes, or sometimes
infernal machines"; Courtenay himself called it his coal
shell.[3]
The torpedoes were manufactured at the 7th Avenue Ar-
1
Thomas Courtenay in the uniform of a Confederate Army Cap-
tain.
tillery shop (across the street from Tredegar Iron Works)
in Richmond, Virginia, in January 1864.[4] The manu-
facturing process was similar to that used for artillery
shells, except that actual pieces of coal were used as pat-
terns for iron castings. The walls of the coal shell were
about 3/8 inch thick, creating a hollow space inside suf-
cient to hold 34 ounces of gunpowder. After lling,
the shell was closed with a threaded plug, then dipped in
melted beeswax and rolled in coal dust, creating the ap-
pearance of a lump of coal.[5] Finished coal torpedoes
were about 4 inches (10 cm) on a side and weighed 34
lb (1.52 kg). The size and powder charge of the coal
torpedo was similar to a 6-pound Shrapnel shell (a hol-
low, four-inch cannonball containing gunpowder and 24
musket balls as shrapnel) or the equivalent of three Civil
War-era hand grenades. Even so, the explosion of a coal
torpedo under a ships boiler would not by itself be suf-
cient to sink the vessel. The purpose of the coal tor-
pedo was to burst the pressurized steam boiler, which had
the potential to cause a tremendous secondary explosion.
Boiler explosions were not uncommon in the early years
2 3
of steam transportation, and often resulted in the com-
plete destruction of the vessel by re. In action, the coal
torpedo would leave little evidence that a boiler explosion
was due to sabotage.
2 Deployment
The sidewheeler Greyhound.
Courtenay was authorized to form a company of men
to inltrate enemy lines and place coal torpedoes in the
coal piles used to fuel Union steam ships.[6] It was es-
pecially intended to be used against ships of the Union
blockade, although Courtenay was authorized to act
against any Union military or commercial shipping in
Confederate waters.[7][8] Although the Union blockade
and other forms of military shipping were Courtenays
primary targets, he also had plans to use the coal torpedo
to attack steam locomotives, although no conrmed at-
tacks are known to have been made.
On 19 March 1864, a Union gunboat captured a rebel
courier crossing the Mississippi, carrying a letter from
Courtenay describing the coal torpedo. The correspon-
dence was forwarded to Admiral David Porter, who im-
mediately issued his General Order 184, which began
The enemy have adopted new inventions to
destroy human life
and vessels in the shape of torpedoes, and
an article resembling coal, which is to be
placed in our coal piles for the purpose of blow-
ing the vessels up, or injuring them. O-
cers will have to be careful in overlooking coal
barges. Guards will be placed over them at all
times, and anyone found attempting to place
any of these things amongst the coal will be
shot on the spot.[3]
In April 1865, most of the ocial papers of the Confed-
erate Secret Service were burned by Secretary of State
Judah P. Benjamin just before the government evacuated
Richmond, making it impossible to determine with any
certainty how many ships were destroyed by Courtenays
shell. Union Admiral Porter credited the coal torpedo Both the American OSS and the British SOE used forms
with sinking the Greyhound, a private steamboat that had of exploding coal in World War II.[18][19] The German
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
been commandeered by General Benjamin F. Butler for
use as a oating headquarters on the James River.[1][9]
Courtenay also took credit for the boiler explosion on
the gunboat USS Chenango that scalded 33 men (28 fa-
tally), though the vessel itself survived and was repaired
and returned to duty.[1][10] In the Spring of 1865, Cana-
dian customs raided a house in Toronto that had been
rented by Jacob Thompson, one of the commissioners
of the Confederate Secret Service stationed in Canada.
They found coal torpedoes and other incendiary devices
hidden under the oorboards.[11] A former Confederate
agent named Robert Louden claimed on his deathbed that
he had used a coal torpedo to sink the steamboat Sultana,
killing an estimated 1,800 of her 2,400 passengers, many
of whom were recently freed Union prisoners of war, on
April 27, 1865, although this claim is controversial.[6][12]
3 After the Civil War
Courtenay had traveled to England in 1864 and remained
there until 1867, trying to sell the secret of the coal tor-
pedo to foreign governments. He approached the British
War Oce, but they turned him down after he would
not agree to allow them to examine his invention before
purchasing it.[10] When Courtenay returned to the United
States, one or more business partners to whom he had
entrusted the secret remained in England. The Times
in 1873 reported rumors that disreputable ship owners
were purchasing coal torpedoes to put in their own ships
as a form of insurance fraud, so that over-insured ships
and cargo would sink while far out at sea, leaving no
evidence.[13][14] Other reports scoed at the rumors, sug-
gesting they were false stories planted by supporters of
Samuel Plimsoll, a Member of Parliament who was trying
to pass a bill reforming the shipping industry.[15] Nothing
was ever proven, but the reports stirred up popular inter-
est in various supposed methods of sabotaging ships, and
the coal torpedo even made an appearance in the short
story, That Little Square Box, by Arthur Conan Doyle,
published in a story collection entitled The Captain of the
Polestar, and other tales.
Various forms of exploding coal, whether directly de-
scended from Courtenays original idea or independently
developed, have surfaced multiple times throughout his-
tory.
The Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization
operating in the United States in the late 1860s1870s,
reportedly considered placing coal torpedoes in the fur-
naces of New York City hotels as well as English transat-
lantic steamships.[16] They were a strong suspect in the
destruction of the warship HMS Doterel at Punta Are-
nas in 1881, but later evidence proved the explosion was
accidental.[17]
 3

commandos who came ashore on Long Island in 1943 [9] David D. Porter, Torpedo Warfare. The North Amer-
as part of Operation Pastorius carried plastic explo- ican Review, Vol. 127, No. 264, 1878, pp. 225227.
sives disguised as coal for use against coal-red electric Available online at Cornell University Librarys Making
generating plants. [20]
Such a German coal torpedo was of America collection, link veried October 31, 2006.
given to the British double agent Eddie Chapman (also [10] Thatcher, Joseph M, The Courtenay Coal Torpedo, in
known as Agent Zig-Zag) to sabotage the merchant ship Military Collector and Historian, Vol. XI, Spring 1959.
City of Lancaster, but he passed it on to his MI5 han-
dler instead.[21] Similar devices were also made by the [11] Adam Mayers, Spies across the border, in Civil War
Japanese during World War 2.[22] Times Illustrated. June 2001, pg. 31.

Stanley Karnow hints in his book Vietnam: A History that [12] G.E. and Deb Rule, The Sultana: A case for sabotage,
the CIA prepared explosive coal for use against North in North and South Magazine, Vol. 5, issue 1, December
Vietnamese railways during the Vietnam War. [23] 2001.

[13] Infernal Machines, The Times (London), 13 June 1873.

[14] Sayings and doings at home and abroad, Appletons

4 See also Journal. Vol. 10, No. 226, 19 July 1873, pg. 95.

[15] An infernal engine, The Times (London), 9 June 1873.

Explosive rat
[16] Foreign Oce archives from the Public Records Oce,
Bat bomb London. Volume F.O. 5, 1777, March to May 1881. Let-
ters from Clipperton, British Consul in Philadelphia, to
Project Eldest Son the Foreign Oce.

5 Notes
[1] Milton F. Perry, Infernal Machines. New Orleans:
Louisiana State University Press, 1963, pp. 135138.
[2] The Ocial Records of the Union and Confederate Navies
in the War of the Rebellion, Washington, DC, 1888. Series
I, Vol. 22 part 2, pg. 970. Available online at Cornell
University Librarys Making of America collection, link
veried October 31, 2006.
[3] The Ocial Records of the Union and Confederate Navies
in the War of the Rebellion, Washington, DC, 1897. Se-
ries I, Vol. 26, pp. 184187. Available online at Cornell
University Librarys Making of America collection, link
veried October 31, 2006.
[4] The Ocial Records of the Union and Confederate Navies
in the War of the Rebellion, Washington, DC, 1897. Series
I, Vol. 5, pg. 395. Available online at Cornell University
Librarys Making of America collection, link veried Oc-
tober 31, 2006.
[17] http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1881/
may/16/navy-destruction-of-hms-doterel#S3V0261P0_
18810516_HOC_118 |chapter-url= missing title (help).
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons.
16 May 1881. col. 584.
[18] H. Keith Melton. The Ultimate Spy Book. New York:DK
Publishing, 1996, pg. 97.
[19] HS 7/28; Seaman 2001, pp. 192193
[20] Joel Samaha, Sam Root, and Paul Sexton, eds. Transcript
of Proceedings before the Military Commission to Try Per-
sons Charged with Oenses against the Law of War and
the Articles of War, Washington D.C., July 8 to July 31,
1942. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2004, page
210.
[21] Ben Macintyre (2007). Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime
Story of Eddie Chapman, Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy. Lon-
don: Bloomsbury. pp. 204211. ISBN 0-7475-8794-9.
[22] Rottman, Gordon (2009). World War II Axis Booby Traps
and Sabotage Tactics. Osprey Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 1-
84603-450-7.

[23] Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History. New York:The

[5] Coal Torpedoes, The Times (London), 30 December
Viking Press, 1983, pg 221.
1875, page 4.

[6] William A. Tidwell, April '65. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State
University Press, 1995, pg. 52.
[7] Raimondo Luraghi, A History of the Confederate Navy.
Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996, pp.
243-244.
[8] The War of the Rebellion. The Ocial Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC, 1900.
Series IV, Vol. 3, pg. 202. Available online at Cornell
University Librarys Making of America collection, link
veried October 31, 2006
6 References
Ann Larabee, The Dynamite Fiend: The Chilling
Tale of a Confederate Spy, Con Artist, and Mass
Murderer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
ISBN 1-4039-6794-6
Raimondo Luraghi, A History of the Confederate
Navy. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press,
1996. ISBN 1-55750-527-6
4 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

Milton F. Perry, Infernal Machines; the story of Con-

federate submarine and mine warfare. New Or-
leans: Louisiana State University Press, 1963.

G.E. and Deb Rule, The Sultana: A case for sab-

otage. North and South Magazine, Vol. 5, issue 1,
December 2001.
Seaman, Mark (2001). Secret Agents Handbook.
First Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-286-4. - The bulk
of this book is a reprint of National Archives docu-
ments HS 7/28 and HS 7/28.
Joseph M. and Thomas H. Thatcher, Confederate
Coal Torpedo: Thomas Courtenays Infernal Sabo-
tage Weapon: Keith Kennerly Press 2011

HS 7/28: Descriptive catalogue of special de-

vices and supplies. The Catalogue. The National
Archives.

HS 7/30: Information on weapons, portable trans-

mitting and receiving equipment; With diagrams
and booklet.. The Catalogue. The National
Archives.

7 External links
General Order 184
 5

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