Editing Naval mine (section)

=== The 19th century ===
[[File:Waud - infernal machines.jpg|thumb|upright|Infernal machines in the [[Potomac River]] in 1861 during the [[American Civil War]], sketch by [[Alfred Waud]]]]

The 1804 [[Raid on Boulogne]] made extensive use of explosive devices designed by inventor [[Robert Fulton]]. The 'torpedo-catamaran' was a coffer-like device balanced on two wooden floats and steered by a man with a paddle. Weighted with lead so as to ride low in the water, the operator was further disguised by wearing dark clothes and a black cap.<ref name="Philip161">{{cite book |last=Philip |title=Robert Fulton |page=161}}</ref> His task was to approach the French ship, hook the torpedo to the anchor cable and, having activated the device by removing a pin, remove the paddles and escape before the torpedo detonated.<ref name="Best80">{{cite book |last=Best |title=Trafalgar |page=80}}</ref> Also to be deployed were large numbers of casks filled with gunpowder, ballast and combustible balls. They would float in on the tide and on washing up against an enemy's hull, explode.<ref name="Best80"/> Also included in the force were several [[Fire ship|fireships]], carrying 40 barrels of gunpowder and rigged to explode by a clockwork mechanism.<ref name="Best80"/>

In 1812, Russian engineer [[Pavel Shilling]] exploded an underwater mine using an [[electrical circuit]]. In 1842 [[Samuel Colt]] used an electric detonator to destroy a moving vessel to demonstrate an underwater mine of his own design to the [[United States Navy]] and President [[John Tyler]]. However, opposition from former president [[John Quincy Adams]], scuttled the project as "not fair and honest warfare".<ref>Schiffer, Michael B. (2008). ''Power struggles: scientific authority and the creation of practical electricity before Edison.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. {{ISBN|978-0-262-19582-9}}.</ref> In 1854, during the unsuccessful attempt of the Anglo-French (101 warships) fleet to seize the [[Kronshtadt|Kronstadt]] fortress, British steamships {{HMS|Merlin|1838|6}} (9 June 1855, the first successful mining in Western history), {{HMS|Vulture|1843|6}} and HMS ''Firefly'' suffered damage due to the underwater explosions of Russian naval mines. Russian naval specialists set more than 1,500 naval mines, or ''infernal machines'', designed by [[Moritz von Jacobi]] and by [[Immanuel Nobel]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Youngblood |first1=Norman |title=The Development of Mine Warfare: A Most Murderous and Barbarous Conduct |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WToYXxVaKKgC |series=Praeger Security International; War, technology, and history |issn=1556-4924 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=2006 |page=29 |isbn=9780275984199 |access-date=31 January 2016 |quote=The Crimean War (1854–1856) was the first war to see the successful use of land and sea mines, both of which were the work of Immanuel Nobel.}}</ref> in the [[Gulf of Finland]] during the [[Crimean War]] of 1853–1856. The mining of ''Vulcan'' led to the world's first [[minesweeping]] operation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nicholson |first1=Arthur |title=Very Special Ships: Abdiel Class Fast Minelayers of World War Two |url=http://navalinstitute.com.au/very-special-ships-abdiel-class-fast-minelayers-of-wwii-2/ |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |date=2015 |page=11 |isbn=9781848322356 |access-date=31 January 2016 |quote=While nosing about the defences off Kronstadt on 9 June 1855, the British paddle steamer ''Merlin'' struck first one and then another mine, giving her the dubious distinction of being the first warship damaged by enemy mines. HMS ''Firefly'' came to her assistance after the first explosion, only to strike a mine herself. [...] When HMS ''Vulcan'' struck a mine on 20 June, the Royal Navy had had enough, and the next day began carrying out the first minesweeping operation in history, recovering thirty-three 'infernal machines,' the standard British term of the day for sea mines.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lambert |first1=Andrew D. |author-link1=Andrew Lambert |year=1990 |title=The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy Against Russia, 1853–56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCVyIZEdc6kC |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |publication-date=2011 |pages=288–289 |isbn=9781409410119 |access-date=31 January 2016 |quote=On 9 June ''Merlin'', ''Dragon'', ''Firefly'' and ''D'Assas'' took Penaud and several British captains to examine Cronstadt. While still 2 miles out the two surveying ships were struck by 'infernals'. [...] The fleet left [[Seskar]] on the 20th. ''Vulture'', almost the last to arrive, was struck by an infernal. The following day the boats fished up several of the primitive mines, and both Dundas and Seymour inspected them aboard their flagships.}}</ref> During the next 72 hours, 33 mines were swept.<ref>Brown. D.K., Before the Ironclad, London (1990), pp. 152–154</ref>

The [[Jacobi mine]] was designed by German-born, Russian engineer Jacobi, in 1853. The mine was tied to the sea bottom by an anchor. A cable connected it to a [[galvanic cell]] which powered it from the shore, the power of its explosive charge was equal to {{cvt|14|kg}} of [[black powder]]. In the summer of 1853, the production of the mine was approved by the Committee for Mines of the [[Ministry of War of the Russian Empire]]. In 1854, 60 Jacobi mines were laid in the vicinity of the Forts Pavel and [[Fort Alexander (Saint Petersburg)|Alexander]] ([[Kronstadt]]), to deter the [[Baltic Fleet (United Kingdom)|British Baltic Fleet]] from attacking them. It gradually phased out its direct competitor the Nobel mine on the insistence of Admiral [[Fyodor Litke]]. The Nobel mines were bought from Swedish industrialist [[Immanuel Nobel]] who had entered into [[collusion]] with the Russian head of navy [[Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov]]. Despite their high cost (100 [[Russian ruble]]s) the Nobel mines proved to be faulty, exploding while being laid, failing to explode or detaching from their wires, and drifting uncontrollably, at least 70 of them were subsequently disarmed by the British. In 1855, 301 more Jacobi mines were laid around Krostadt and [[Lisy Nos]]. British ships did not dare to approach them.{{sfn|Tarle|1944|pp=44–45}}

In the 19th century, mines were called [[torpedo]]es, a name probably conferred by [[Robert Fulton]] after the [[torpedo fish]], which gives powerful [[electric shock]]s. A [[spar torpedo]] was a mine attached to a long pole and detonated when the ship carrying it rammed another one and withdrew a safe distance. The submarine {{ship||H. L. Hunley|submarine|2}} used one to sink {{USS|Housatonic|1861|6}} on 17 February 1864. A Harvey torpedo was a type of floating mine towed alongside a ship and was briefly in service in the [[Royal Navy]] in the 1870s. Other "torpedoes" were attached to ships or propelled themselves. One such weapon called the [[Whitehead torpedo]] after its inventor, caused the word "torpedo" to apply to self-propelled underwater missiles as well as to static devices. These mobile devices were also known as "fish torpedoes".

The [[American Civil War]] of 1861–1865 also saw the successful use of mines. The first ship sunk by a mine, {{USS|Cairo}}, foundered in 1862 in the [[Yazoo River]]. [[Rear Admiral]] [[David Farragut]]'s famous command during the [[Battle of Mobile Bay]] in 1864, "[[Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!]]"{{refn|Farragut's actual wording has been recorded as, "Damn the torpedoes. Four bells, Captain Drayton, go ahead. Jouett, full speed."|group="note"}} refers to a minefield laid at [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], Alabama.

After 1865 the United States adopted the mine as its primary weapon for [[Seacoast defense in the United States|coastal defense]]. In the decade following 1868, Major [[Henry Larcom Abbot]] carried out a lengthy set of experiments to design and test moored mines that could be exploded on contact or be detonated at will as enemy shipping passed near them. This initial development of mines in the United States took place under the purview of the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]], which trained officers and men in their use at the [[U.S. Army Engineer School|Engineer School of Application]] at Willets Point, New York (later named [[Fort Totten (Queens)|Fort Totten]]). In 1901 underwater minefields became the responsibility of the US Army's Artillery Corps, and in 1907 this was a founding responsibility of the [[United States Army Coast Artillery Corps]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdsg.org/coast-artillery-submarine-mine-defenses/|title=Coast Artillery: Submarine Mine Defenses|date=25 May 2016|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-date=11 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911161715/http://cdsg.org/coast-artillery-submarine-mine-defenses/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Imperial Russian Navy]], a pioneer in mine warfare, successfully deployed mines against the [[Ottoman Navy]] during both the Crimean War and the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878)]].<ref name= Kowner>{{cite book |last=Kowner |first=Rotem |author-link=Rotem Kowner |year=2006 |title=Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |page=238 |isbn=0-8108-4927-5}}</ref>

During the [[War of the Pacific]] (1879-1883), the [[Peruvian Navy]], at a time when the Chilean squadron was blockading the Peruvian ports, formed a brigade of torpedo boats under the command of the frigate captain Leopoldo Sánchez Calderón and the Peruvian engineer [[:es: Manuel Cuadros|Manuel Cuadros]], who perfected the naval torpedo or mine system to be electrically activated when the cargo weight was lifted. This is how, on 3 July 1880, in front of the port of [[Callao]], the gunned transport ''[[:es: Vapor Loa|Loa]]'' flies when capturing a sloop mined by the Peruvians. A similar fate occurred with the gunboat schooner ''[[:es: Goleta Covadonga|Covadonga]]'' in front of the port of [[Chancay]], on 13 September 1880, which having captured and checked a beautiful boat, it exploded when hoisting it on its side.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Marine-Corps-University-Press/MCU-Journal/JAMS-vol-13-no-2/The-Port-Hopping-War/|title=The Port-Hopping War|access-date=15 October 2022|archive-date=15 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015000323/https://www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Marine-Corps-University-Press/MCU-Journal/JAMS-vol-13-no-2/The-Port-Hopping-War/|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the [[Battle of Tamsui]] (1884), in the [[Keelung Campaign]] of the [[Sino-French War]], Chinese forces in Taiwan under [[Liu Mingchuan]] took measures to reinforce [[Tamsui]] against the French; they planted nine torpedo mines in the river and blocked the entrance.<ref>{{cite book |title=Maritime Taiwan: Historical Encounters with the East and the West |last=Tsai |first=Shih-shan Henry |edition=illustrated |year=2009 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlnKRaZ0f4QC&q=taiwan+matchlocks+stones&pg=PA97 |archive-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=abMMAQAAMAAJ&q=taiwan+matchlocks+stones&dq=taiwan+matchlocks+stones&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZHBJVMP8HKz-sATi64HADQ&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBw |archive-date=13 July 2010 |page=97 |isbn=978-0765623287 |access-date=24 April 2014}}</ref>