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Preservationists don't want to damn this torpedo
The Army agrees to hold Civil War underwater mine for history's sake.
By Noelle Phillips
Savannah Morning News
FORT STEWART -- Army bomb squads follow a simple but serious order.
If they find an old bomb, missile or grenade, they destroy it.
That was the mission Saturday for two Fort Stewart soldiers when they arrived on Elba Island to find a Civil War underwater mine.
"Our job is to protect people's lives," said Staff Sgt. Garrick Hipskind. "That's what we do."
When Hipskind and his partner, Sgt. Robert Pancake, got there, historians and museum curators already were on the scene. They pleaded with the soldiers to stop.
If the soldiers destroyed the mine, the historians said, a valuable piece of history would be lost.
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Though it is called a torpedo, it is better described in modern day terms as a stationary underwater mine. The detonation pin is on the right end of the torpedo. --John Carrington/Savannah Morning News |
But soldiers follow military orders, so they went about their work, identifying the ordnance and securing the area. They destroy rusted hunks of metal every day, and the mine was just another safety hazard in their eyes.
"At that point, no one with any real authority told us we could not blow it up," Hipskind said.
Then, a historian handed him the phone. "I have a congressman on the line.'"
It was U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., asking Hipskind to hold off on the detonation. Hipskin called his boss, 1st Sgt. Joseph Hubbard, who called his commander. For four hours, phone calls ran up and down the Army chain of command.
Detonation procedures stopped.
Now, the old underwater mine, called a torpedo in Civil War days, sits inside Magazine10 at Fort Stewart's ammo storage site. The magazine is an above-ground bunker, covered with concrete and two feet of dirt.
On Tuesday, the 38th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company opened the magazine's doors to show the bomb to Kingston, civilian workers and local news media. The rusted, cylinder-shaped hunk of cast iron rests on top of sand bags and a wooden pallet. It weighs between 200 and 300 pounds.
There's no danger of the mine exploding because the capsule is filled with water, said Capt. Chris Bowen, the company commander.
It will stay there until the Army decides what to do with it.
"We all moan and groan about bureaucracy," Kingston said as he complimented the soldiers for being practical at the scene. "These folks showed us on Saturday that the government is strong enough to bend."
Army guidelines require all explosives to be destroyed so commanders are searching for a loophole that will let them preserve the torpedo, Kingston said. The U.S. Forces Command, headquartered in Atlanta, will have final word.
But all involved say they think the mine will survive and find its place in history.
Scott Smith, director of the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah, said the torpedo probably was mounted to a wooden rack along with three other torpedoes. Confederates defending the Savannah harbor would have planted the rack in the riverbed during low tide. When the tide rose, the rack of torpedoes would have been disguised and ships would have hit it.
The mine probably was forged in Savannah, Smith said. A brass fuse sits on top of the cylinder's peak but the detonation pins have worn off.
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Click on the underwater mines to learn more about Civil War torpedoes. --Vita Salvemini/Savannah Morning News |
U.S. Navy Admiral David Farragut referred to these devices when he said, "Damn the torpedoes - full speed ahead!" during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864.
Mines did not destroy any U.S. ships in the Savannah River because it was well defended and the Union Navy stayed away, Smith said.
Walter Meeks, the Fort Stewart Museum curator, called the mine a "time capsule of technology."
Historians know of two similar mines in Belgium and two in North Carolina, although they all are slightly different. The mine found Saturday is the second located in Savannah, Smith said. It was uncovered during excavation work at the Southern Liquified Natural Gas site when a bull dozer scooped it from a dredge pile.
The first underwater mine found in Savannah was destroyed and then reassembled with fiberglass. It will be on display May 18 at the Savannah History Museum, Smith said.
For now, no one is sure where the mine will land once its explosives have been removed. The Army does not remove explosives to make a bomb inert, but there are companies that specialize in Civil War-era ordnance. The bomb is Army property, and Kingston wants it to stay in the Savannah area so students and tourists can see it. Local museums and historic sites have a competing interest in its historical value.
"We'll have a magnificent battle over who gets it," Kingston said
