Raynors HCA 2015-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/3/2015
THOMPSON, Ambrose, commissioned August 22, 1861 and promted to Lieut. Col. May 19, 1862, resigned on 8/26/1863. Autograph letter Signed “Ambrose Thompson, Late Colonel US Army” New York, August 20, 1864, 4pp., to Mr. watson as Asst. Secretary of War, VG. In part, “... to lay before you a plan which I have carefully studied and am confident will be of benefit to our service... I have determined not to lay the matter before the Navy Department ... My proposal is to built a submarine boat - for Army purposes - propelled by a new motive power and which shall rise or fall instantaneously in the water by the action of its own machinery, have a speed under water of at least six miles per hour - be armed with a rifled gun, and with arrangements for exploding torpedos - and be capable of remaining under water and maintaining a constant speed for an undefinite length of time ... from 48 hours to a week at a time. This vessel could attack and destroy with ease the most powerful war vessels ... ...”
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