did, were now "torpedo mad."
"Commodore Tucker and I," he said, "had torpedo on the brain," and the
destruction of the enemy's vessels increased so rapidly that in the last
ten months of the war forty or fifty were blown up, and in the last
three weeks ten or more were destroyed. Its possibilities became better
and better appreciated every day. Think of the destruction this machine
affected, and bear in mind its use came to be fairly understood only
during the last part of the war. During that period, when but few
Federal vessels were lost and fewer still severely damaged by the most
powerful guns in use, we find this long line of disasters from the
Confederate use of this new and in the beginning despised comer into the
arena of naval warfare. Our successes have made the torpedo a name
spoken of with loathing and contempt by the self-sufficient Yankee, a
recognized factor in modern naval warfare, and now we see on all sides
the greatest activity and genius in improving it.

The wonderful inventive genius and energetic action of the Confederate
officers, and engineers astounded the world by their achievements in the
unknown and untried science in naval warfare. They not only made it most
effective for sea coast and harbour defence, but terrible as an agency
of attack on hostile ships of war. Not only that, but they brought the
system to such a high state of perfection that little or no advance or
improvement has since been made in it, and within a short period of the
inception of the design a system was formed so perfect and complete as
that the advance upon the water by the enemy was materially checked.
They startled naval constructors and officers in the civilized world by
the rapidity, audacity and novelty of their original methods, and will
be known through all ages for their wonderful achievements. Maury,
Buchanan, Brook, Jones and their assistants are the central figures
around which revolve to the present day the changes from the old to the
new in naval warfare.

Meantime Captain Maury was most diligently employed in London, under the
order of the Navy Department in developing and improving his system,
afforded by the workshops and laboratories there for experiment and
construction. Here he continued during 1863 and 1864, pursuing these
researches, perfecting many valuable inventions, and instruments with
signal success. He reported to the Secretary of the Navy at home, so far
as it was safe to do so, by whom r