Battery Hobart-- Part 1: Fort Williams, Maine

In the last post I mentioned that I couldn't find anything else on Henry A. Hobart, but came across this on a battery named for him in Maine.

From the Maine Attraction.

Visited the battery and took a picture of it.  Located in Fort Williams, Maine.

Battery Hobart was built in 1898 and named after Lt. Henry A. Hobart,  one of Maine's first graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, who was killed in action during the War of 1812.  The battery mounted one six-inch Armstrong gun whose function was  to help protect the mine field laid in the main channel in time of war from hostile minesweepers.

Battery Hobart was manned during the Spanish-American War.

I was unable to find a photo of what the gun looked like at Battery Hobart, but the Fort De Soto Park Six-inch Armstrongs has a picture.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Washington-- Part 3: Mines and Mortars

Due to ironclad battleship design in the 1870s and 1880s, Secretary of War William Endicott lobbied for a new system of coastal defense.  In 1890, a casemate was added alongside the fort.  Technicians in this reinforced bunker could electronically fire off underwater mines strung across the Potomac.

New offensive armament was also installed.  New 12-inch mortars were installed at Battery Meigs which could direct a plunging fire at the thinly protected decks of the new warships.

--Brock-Perry

Joseph Chambers' Diving Suit and Torpedoes

Evidently, repeating weapons weren't the only thing Joseph Chambers was interested in.

In November 1807, he wrote to Thomas Jefferson giving details for his experiments with a primitive type of diving suit and "Torpedoes."

November 17, 1807:  From West Middleton, Pennsylvania.

A proposition for examination by the government of a submarine dress for placing torpedoes and for other purposes during the war.

These torpedoes, however, would be more like mines than the powered torpedoes we know today.

--Brock-Perry