Before Modern Warfare: The 1878 Law That Put Explosives Under U.S. Harbors

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, dear listeners. Today we're diving literally into something deeply strange.

0:05 Speaker 1: March third, eighteen seventy eight. On this day, the United

0:10 Speaker 1: States passed legislation authorizing what were then called submarine minds,

0:15 Speaker 1: more dramatically known in the nineteenth century as torpedoes. Not

0:20 Speaker 1: the sleek submarine torpedoes you're imagining. These were stationary underwater

0:25 Speaker 1: explosives wired to shore, and the weird part the US

0:29 Speaker 1: government had to formally legalize them because blowing up the

0:34 Speaker 1: ocean required paperwork. What is the original meaning of torpedo?

0:40 Speaker 1: In the eighteen hundreds, the word torpedo didn't mean a

0:43 Speaker 1: self propelled missile. It referred to underwater explosive devices often

0:48 Speaker 1: placed in harbors for defense. The term comes from the

0:51 Speaker 1: Latin word for a numbing electric ray fish torperee, meaning

0:56 Speaker 1: to numb or paralyze, which is uns settlingly poetic. These

1:02 Speaker 1: devices were anchored below the waterline and connected by electrical

1:06 Speaker 1: wires to operators on land. When an enemy ship passed overhead,

1:11 Speaker 1: someone on shore could detonate the charge manually. Imagine standing

1:15 Speaker 1: in a wooden shack, waiting for a ship to drift

1:18 Speaker 1: into position, and then pressing a button. On March third,

1:23 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, Congress authorized the US Army Corps of

1:27 Speaker 1: Engineers to oversee the placement and maintenance of these submarine

1:31 Speaker 1: defenses in American harbors. This formalized something that had already

1:35 Speaker 1: been experimented with during the Civil War. But here's where

1:39 Speaker 1: it gets obscure. At the time, there were serious ethical

1:43 Speaker 1: debates about whether underwater mines were honorable warfare. Some critics

1:47 Speaker 1: argued they were cowardly, unseen, indiscriminate, a violation of maritime norms.

1:54 Speaker 1: The idea that a ship could explode without warning, without

1:58 Speaker 1: visible combat disturbed nieteenth century military sensibilities. It felt sneaky.

2:04 Speaker 1: History rarely pauses to ask whether new weapons feel polite.

2:09 Speaker 1: Let's talk about the harbor that could secretly explode. After

2:13 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, several US ports quietly installed minefields as

2:18 Speaker 1: defensive measures New York Harbor, San Francisco Bay, Key coastal

2:23 Speaker 1: entry points. Most citizens had no idea. Imagine walking along

2:29 Speaker 1: the waterfront in eighteen eighty five, unaware that beneath the

2:32 Speaker 1: waves lay a grid of wired explosives ready to detonate.

2:37 Speaker 1: It's the nineteenth century equivalent of password protected infrastructure, and

2:41 Speaker 1: it stayed that way for decades. The strange engineering detail.

2:46 Speaker 1: Early submarine mines relied on complex insulated copper cables running

2:51 Speaker 1: underwater to control stations. Saltwater corrodes everything. Electrical insulation in

2:56 Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds was primitive. Maintenance was constant. Operators had

3:01 Speaker 1: to test circuits regularly. A faulty wire meant either a

3:05 Speaker 1: dud or worse, a premature detonation. There were accidental explosions

3:11 Speaker 1: during testing. History does not highlight these moments loudly, but

3:15 Speaker 1: they happened. March third, eighteen seventy eight represents something subtle

3:21 Speaker 1: but significant, the normalization of invisible warfare. Before industrialization, combat

3:27 Speaker 1: was visible. Armies lined up, ships exchanged fire within sight.

3:32 Speaker 1: Submarine mines changed that dynamic. Now a harbor itself could

3:37 Speaker 1: be weaponized an unseen trigger, a hidden charge. Modern warfare

3:43 Speaker 1: would later perfect invisibility submarines, drones, cyber attacks, but this

3:49 Speaker 1: was one of the earlier steps, and it began with

3:52 Speaker 1: Congress quietly approving underwater bombs. Then we get into the

3:56 Speaker 1: even stranger afterlife. By the early twentieth century, these controlled

4:01 Speaker 1: mind systems evolved into more sophisticated coastal defense networks. During

4:06 Speaker 1: both World Wars, American harbors again relied on underwater mines

4:11 Speaker 1: descendants of those first legalized torpedoes. The public rarely thought

4:16 Speaker 1: about them. That's the point of good harbor defense. If

4:19 Speaker 1: it works, no one notices.

4:22 Speaker 2: This episode is brought to you by Harbor Surprise and

4:25 Speaker 2: Sun's Defense Solutions, proudly asking the question what if the

4:29 Speaker 2: ocean exploded? Proudly serving random explosions since eighteen seventy eight.

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4:40 Speaker 2: coastline had more suspense. At Harbor Surprise and SUNS, we

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4:49 Speaker 2: a slightly damp wooden control shed. Just wait patiently for

4:53 Speaker 2: a vessel to float overhead and press the absolutely not button.

4:57 Speaker 2: Our patented Submarine Mind Deluxe packet includes insulated copper wiring,

5:02 Speaker 2: questionable nineteenth century electrical confidence, and the thrilling uncertainty of

5:06 Speaker 2: whether it will work exactly as intended. Because nothing says

5:10 Speaker 2: national security like controlled explosions beneath unsuspecting waves, Harbor Surprise

5:16 Speaker 2: and SUNS turning calm harbors into high stakes guessing games

5:21 Speaker 2: since before it was fully ethical. Battery life not guaranteed.

5:26 Speaker 2: Saltwater corrosion included at no extra charge.

5:30 Speaker 1: Dear listeners, If today's episode taught us anything, it's that

5:35 Speaker 1: history is rarely just battles and presidents. Sometimes it's paperwork

5:39 Speaker 1: that quietly authorizes underwater explosions. Sometimes it's inventions that almost

5:45 Speaker 1: didn't happen. Sometimes it's molasses. And that's exactly what the

5:49 Speaker 1: Strange History Podcast is here for. If you're enjoying these

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