Editing Torpedo (section)

===Early naval mines===
{{Main|Naval mine}}
[[File:Fulton's torpedo.jpg|thumb|right|Fulton's torpedo<ref name=Lossing/>{{rp|238}}]]
[[File: Sinking torpedoes by moonlight in Charleston Harbor - Harper's Weekly, June 13, 1863.jpg|thumb|right|Confederates laying naval mines in Charleston Harbor]]

In modern language, a "torpedo" is an underwater self-propelled explosive, but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval mines and [[spar torpedoes]]. These were used on an ad-hoc basis during the early modern period up to the late 19th century.

In the early 17th century, the Dutchman [[Cornelius Drebbel]], in the employ of [[King James I of England]], invented the spar torpedo; he attached explosives to the end of a beam affixed to one of his submarines. These were used (to little effect) during the English [[Siege of La Rochelle|expeditions to La Rochelle]] in 1626.<ref name="gray">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Gray|2004}}</ref> The first use of a torpedo by a submarine was in 1775, by the American {{ship||Turtle|submersible|2}}, which attempted to lay a bomb with a timed fuse on the hull of {{HMS|Eagle|1774|6}} during the [[American Revolutionary War]], but failed in the attempt.

In the early 1800s, the American inventor [[Robert Fulton]], while in France, "conceived the idea of destroying ships by introducing floating mines under their bottoms in submarine boats".<!--Is that quote in Lossing?-->  He employed the term "torpedo" for the explosive charges with which he outfitted his submarine ''[[Nautilus (1800 submarine)|Nautilus]]''. However, both the French and the Dutch governments were uninterested in the submarine.  Fulton then concentrated on developing the torpedo-like weapon independent of a submarine deployment, and in 1804 succeeded in convincing the British government to employ his "catamaran" against the French.<ref name="davey">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Davey|2016}}</ref> An April 1804 torpedo attack on French ships anchored at [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]], and a [[Raid on Boulogne|follow-up attack in October]], produced several explosions but no significant damage, and the weapon was abandoned.

Fulton carried out a demonstration for the US government on 20 July 1807, destroying a vessel in [[New York Harbor|New York's harbor]].  Further development languished as Fulton focused on his "steam-boat matters". After the [[War of 1812]] broke out, the [[Royal Navy]] established a blockade of the [[East Coast of the United States]]. During the war, American forces unsuccessfully attempted to destroy the British [[Ship of the line|ship-of-the-line]] [[HMS Ramillies (1785)|HMS ''Ramillies'']] while it was lying at anchor in [[New London, Connecticut]]'s harbor with torpedoes launched from small boats. This prompted the captain of ''Ramillies'', [[Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet]], to warn the Americans to cease using this "cruel and unheard-of warfare" or he would "order every house near the shore to be destroyed". The fact that Hardy had been previously so lenient and considerate to the Americans led them to abandon such attempts with immediate effect.<ref name=Lossing>{{Cite book |last=Lossing |first=Benson |title=The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 |publisher=Harper & Brothers, Publishers |location=New York |year=1868 |pages=240–243, 693 |oclc=886707577}}</ref>

Torpedoes were used by the [[Russian Empire]] during the [[Crimean War]] in 1855 against British warships in the [[Gulf of Finland]]. They used an early form of chemical detonator. During the [[American Civil War]], the term ''torpedo'' was used for what is today called a [[Naval mine#Contact mines|contact mine]], floating on or below the water surface using an air-filled [[Carboy|demijohn]] or similar flotation device. These devices were very primitive and apt to prematurely explode. They would be detonated on contact with the ship or after a set time, although electrical detonators were also occasionally used.  In 1862, the {{USS|Cairo}} became the first warship to be sunk by an electrically-detonated mine. Spar torpedoes were also used; an explosive device was mounted at the end of a spar up to {{convert|30|ft|m}} long projecting forward underwater from the bow of the attacking vessel, which would then ram the opponent with the explosives. These were used by the [[Confederate States Navy|Confederate]] submarine {{ship||H. L. Hunley|submarine|2}} to sink the {{USS|Housatonic|1861|6}}, although the weapon was apt to cause as much harm to its user as to its target. [[Rear Admiral]] [[David Farragut]]'s famous/apocryphal command during the [[Battle of Mobile Bay]] in 1864, "[[Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!]]", refers to a minefield laid at [[Mobile, Alabama]].

[[File:Romanian spar torpedo boat Rândunica.jpg|thumb|right|NMS ''Rândunica'']]

On 26 May 1877, during the [[Romanian War of Independence]], the Romanian spar torpedo boat {{ship|NMS|Rândunica||2}} attacked and sank the Ottoman [[river monitor]] ''Seyfi''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Cristian |last=Crăciunoiu |title=Romanian navy torpedo boats |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VilMAQAAIAAJ |year=2003 |publisher=Modelism |isbn=978-973-8101-17-3 |page=19}}</ref> This was the first instance in history when a torpedo boat sank its targets without also sinking.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lawrence Sondhaus|title=Navies of Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=elbJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|date=11 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-86978-8|pages=88–}}</ref>