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BOOK REVIEW - Sea Miner; Major E. B. Hunt's Civil War Rocket Torpedo 1862-1863 | Naval Historical Foundation

 

https://www.navyhistory.org/2016/06/book-review-sea-miner-major-e-b-hunts-civil-war-rocket-torpedo-1862-1863/

There is an article about this torpedo in the current warship intern as tonal issue

Ron Hunt
 

VERY interesting.

Ron

On Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 9:35 PM, Terry Sofian via Groups.Io <tsofian@...> wrote:

There is an article about this torpedo in the current warship intern as tonal issue


 

ACW Naval history has always been rather fascinating to me. This book sounds rather interesting, but I'm not too sure that I'll add to my Want/Wish List any time soon. Without coming out and actually saying such in so many words the reviewer too sounded rather disappointed in the book's lack of solid resource material and the writer's need to base much on conjecture. As the reviewer also pointed out with regards to the rocket-torpedo's velocity estimates, I would think that even if Hunt was unaware of, or just chose to ignore basic hydrodynamics (he was ARMY and not NAVY after all. LOL) then at least the author should have done a bit of simple research himself. = A bit slipshod and not a good sign for a "History" book, to my way of thinking, no matter what the author's background. --- Vintage SF/Weird War and the Tekno-Nerd-Kritics could have ~ probably ~ let him get away with it. ~ maybe ~ (LOL) But certainly not in an historical text.?
Sadly, I'm sure that history will hold hidden many great inventors and their inventions who perished in similar disasters only to fade forever in memory with the dispersal of the smoke.
Was Hunt's invention The Great naval innovation the author thinks it was??? --- Personally, I'm not all that sure. . . . A Different approach, certainly. Feasible and Functional with the technology and materials of the time period??? . . . I doubt it would have performed as advertised. --- And even if he did get it to work, then there is that whole making it "Sailor Proof" issue. = Would sure love to see the Myth Busters (or even just some Annapolis Naval Academy engineering students) give it a good run through!

Keep It FUN!
Dan G
 

Warship international publshed a shorter version. It seemed well sourced to me. It's what put me on the trail in the first place.



On Friday, September 21, 2018 Dan G via Groups.Io <[email protected]> wrote:

ACW Naval history has always been rather fascinating to me. This book sounds rather interesting, but I'm not too sure that I'll add to my Want/Wish List any time soon. Without coming out and actually saying such in so many words the reviewer too sounded rather disappointed in the book's lack of solid resource material and the writer's need to base much on conjecture. As the reviewer also pointed out with regards to the rocket-torpedo's velocity estimates, I would think that even if Hunt was unaware of, or just chose to ignore basic hydrodynamics (he was ARMY and not NAVY after all. LOL) then at least the author should have done a bit of simple research himself. = A bit slipshod and not a good sign for a "History" book, to my way of thinking, no matter what the author's background. --- Vintage SF/Weird War and the Tekno-Nerd-Kritics could have ~ probably ~ let him get away with it. ~ maybe ~ (LOL) But certainly not in an historical text.?
Sadly, I'm sure that history will hold hidden many great inventors and their inventions who perished in similar disasters only to fade forever in memory with the dispersal of the smoke.
Was Hunt's invention The Great naval innovation the author thinks it was??? --- Personally, I'm not all that sure. . . . A Different approach, certainly. Feasible and Functional with the technology and materials of the time period??? . . . I doubt it would have performed as advertised. --- And even if he did get it to work, then there is that whole making it "Sailor Proof" issue. = Would sure love to see the Myth Busters (or even just some Annapolis Naval Academy engineering students) give it a good run through!

Keep It FUN!
Dan G

 

The Soviets got one to work darn well in the late 1970s. The VA-111 Shkval using a solid-fuel rocket engine and supercavitation. But again, a MAJOR jump in both the technology and materials available between the ACW and the Atomic Age Cold War of the 1970s. = I seriously doubt Hunt's version could have been made to work anything like he had hoped, if at all, with what he had to work with. = Another Vintage Age Dream Weapon right up there with Fulton's Underwater Cannon. (at least that survived actual testing) = An interesting and innovative FUN addition to a purely Vintage SCI-FI/Weird War story along with Nemo's Nautilus, Tesla's Death Ray, Griffin's Spaceships, etc, etc . . . but, IMO, just not actually feasibly achievable for the times.
And, like I said, I would be greatly interested in seeing the results of someone, anyone, who could make this work using only the materials and tech available to Hunt himself.?
?

Keep It FUN!
Dan G

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