SSC Pacific Recovers Historic Howell Torpedo
Story by Elisha Gamboa, Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Command
SAN DIEGO - Space and Naval warfare Systems Center
Pacific (SSC Pacific) has discovered and recovered one of the first
self-propelled torpedoes developed and used by the U.S. Navy, known as the
Howell torpedo.
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| Members of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific Marine Mammal Team pose May 15, 2013, with one of the Navy's specially trained Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins. The team, along with the dolphin, are responsible for the discovery and recovery of the Howell torpedo. (Photo by Alan Antczak/Released) |
Primarily the work of Lt. Cmdr. John A. Howell, the
Howell torpedo was developed between 1870 and 1889. The Howell torpedo was an
11-foot-long brass torpedo, driven by a 132-pound flywheel spun to 10,000 rpm
prior to launch. It had a range of 400 yards, a speed of 25 knots, and a
warhead filled with 100 pounds of gun cotton.
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The only other extant Howell Torpedo on display at the
Naval War College Museum in Newport, Rhode Island (US Navy) |
“It was the first torpedo that could be released
into the ocean and follow a track. Considering that it was made before
electricity was provided to U.S. households, it was pretty sophisticated for
its time,” said Christian Harris, operations supervisor for the SSC Pacific
Biosciences Division.
The Howell torpedo was used by U.S. Navy battleships
and torpedo boats until 1898, when it was replaced by the Whitehead.
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| Torpedo Boat "Stilletto" launching a Howell torpedo c. 1890 |
“There were only 50 Howell torpedoes made, and we
discovered one of the two ever found,” said Braden Duryee, operations
supervisor for the SSC Pacific Biosciences Division.
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| Hotchkiss Ordnance Co advertisement clipping for Howell torpedoes 11-24-1888 |
The Howell torpedo recovered by SSC Pacific, is
stamped “USN No. 24.” The Naval Undersea Museum houses the only other known
Howell torpedo in existence today.
SSC Pacific discovered the Howell torpedo in March
2013, off the San Diego coast, near Hotel Del Coronado, during a mine-hunting
training exercise with Navy dolphins.
“Dolphins naturally possess the most sophisticated
sonar known to man. They can detect mines and other potentially dangerous
objects on the ocean floor that are acoustically difficult targets to detect,”
explained Duryee.
The Navy has an entire program dedicated to studying
and training marine mammals, called the Navy Marine Mammal Program. The
development, training, veterinary care and research facility that supports NMMP
is centered in the Biosciences Division at SSC Pacific.
With the NMMP, the Navy trains dolphins to find and
mark the location of underwater objects. Some of the objects the animals find,
such as non-explosive Navy training mines, are expensive to replace. Others
could present a danger to Navy personnel and vessels. In this case, the object
found was an important piece of naval history.
“The animals are very good at their job. We were
just doing our daily training exercises with the animals, when one marked an
object on the sea floor. About a week later, another animal marked the same
object,” said Duryee.
During training and the actual hunting of mines, a
dolphin waits to receive a cue from its handler before it begins to search a
specific area. Once the dolphin completes its search, it reports back to its
handler, giving one response if a target object is detected, and a different
response if no target object is detected.
This time the dolphin detected a mine-like target;
the handler sent the dolphin to mark the location of the object so that Navy
divers could recover it.
At first, the recovery team thought the object was
an old tail section off an aerial drop mine, but once the object was recovered,
it was obvious that the object was something completely different.
“It was apparent in the first 15 minutes that this
was something that was significant and really old,” said Harris. “Realizing
that we were the first people to touch it or be around it in over 125 years was
really exciting.”
After thorough research, the team discovered that
the object was in fact a 130-year-old Howell torpedo. After the noteworthy
discovery, SSC Pacific moved quickly to preserve this part of naval history.
“The torpedo was in remarkably pristine shape, so to
preserve it, Braden Duryee had the idea to submerge it into a tank of water to
prevent it from breaking down in the surrounding oxygen,” said Harris. “Later
on, experts confirmed that Braden was correct.”
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| Navy technicians move the tail section of the torpedo to a holding tank. (US Navy) |
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| The center section of the torpedo is submerged into a holding tank. The sections will be stored this way until they can be properly cared for by museum conservators. (US Navy) |
SSC Pacific will
continue to preserve the torpedo until it can be shipped by air to the Naval
History and Heritage Command, located at the Washington Navy Yard. The Naval
History and Heritage Command is an Echelon II command responsible for the
preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. Naval history and heritage
for present and future generations.
You can learn more about the Howell Torpedo here: http://www.hnsa.org/doc/howell/index.htm
