Engineer in Gray
James H. Tomb, R. Thomas CampbellOverview
Chief Engineer James Hamilton Tomb (1839-1929) devoted almost 12 years to naval service-first in the Confederate States' Navy during the American Civil War and then in the Marinha do Brasil during the War of the Triple Alliances. A steam engineer by profession and a torpedo expert by circumstance, Tomb was in the forefront of naval weapons technology. He also had the courage and capacity to assume positions of command. His first assignment was first class engineer on the CSS Jackson at New Orleans. Here, amid a tightening blockade and a growing fear of Federal attack from the Gulf, Tomb's memoirs begin...Tomb's first-person narration is interspersed with explanatory comments from the editor, who also fills in Tomb's life at the memoir's beginning and end. Three appendices include documents by Tomb: "Submarines and Torpedo Boats, C.S.N.," written in 1914, a detailed description of his experiences with the torpedo boat David and the submarine H.L. Hunley, and "Reminiscences of Torpedo Service in Charleston Harbor," 1877. A bibliography and a wealth of rare photographs complete the work.
Synopsis
Chief Engineer James Hamilton Tomb (1839-1929) devoted almost 12 years of his early life to wartime naval service-first in the Confederate States' Navy during the American Civil War and then in the Marinha do Brasil during the War of the Triple Alliances. A steam engineer by profession and a torpedo expert by circumstance, Tomb was in the forefront of naval weapons technology of the period. Tomb quickly amassed not only the knowledge required of a steam engineer, but also the courage and capacity to assume important positions of command. Within days of his commissioning, he was on his way to his first assignment-first class engineer on the CSS Jackson at New Orleans, Louisiana, a point of great strategic importance. Here, amid a tightening blockade and a growing fear of Federal attack from the Gulf, Tomb's memoirs begin...
Tomb's first-person narration is interspersed with explanatory comments from the author; the author also fills in Tomb's life at the memoir's beginning and end. Three appendices include documents by Tomb: "Submarines and Torpedo Boats, C.S.N.," written in 1914 for the Confederate Veteran Magazine, a private manuscript Tomb wrote for his family describing in detail his experiences with the torpedo boat David and submarine H.L. Hunley, and "Reminiscences of Torpedo Service in Charleston Harbor," published in 1877 in the Southern Historical Society Papers. A bibliography and a wealth of rare photographs complete the work.