amed because although she was small it was hoped she
would strike terror to the huge Goliaths of the Union fleet, was built
of boiler iron. She was thirty feet long and of a cigar shape, her
greatest diameter being a little less than six feet. She was propelled
by a hand engine worked by members of her crew, and could be submerged
at pleasure, but experience had shown that once down she usually stayed
down with all on board. A resume of her history has been given. She was
a floating, or sinking, death-trap.

Originally she was intended to drag after her a floating torpedo in the
hope that she could pass under a vessel's keel and explode the torpedo
when she reached the proper position. General Beauregard, however, had
positively forbidden that she should be used as a submarine any longer
on account of her disastrous behavior, and on this occasion she was
provided with a long spar sticking out from her nose, on the end of
which was one hundred pounds of powder in a copper cylinder provided
with four extremely sensitive tubes of lead containing a highly
explosive mixture, which would ignite upon contact with a ship's side
or bottom and explode the torpedo.

She was painted a slate-gray, and her ballast was so adjusted that with
the seven men who manned her on board, one to steer, one to look after
the torpedo, and five to turn the propeller crank, her low hatch
scarcely rose above the water. In that condition, and especially at
night, she looked like a plank floating on the surface. By hard and
conscientious labor her five man-power engine could shove her along at
about a speed of four knots. Although the order of General Beauregard
that she should not be submerged again had materially diminished the
risk which experience had shown was overwhelming, yet the proposed
expedition was nevertheless hazardous in the extreme.

In the first place, an excellent lookout was kept on the Union ships on
account of the several attempts which had been made against them by
similar boats. If she were discovered, one shot striking the boat as
she approached, even a rifle shot, would suffice to sink her. No one
knew what she would do even if she succeeded in exploding the torpedo.
It was scarcely hoped that she could get away from a sinking ship
in that event.

The little party of officers grouped on the wharf bade good-by to the
men who entered the deadly affair as if they were saying farewell to
those about to die. Every preparation h