1/600 USS Spuyten Duyvil

An experimental ship, Spuyten Duyvil was originally intended as a platform for the failed underwater gun project; she was quickly converted for use with an equally (at the time) novel idea: the submersible use of spar torpedoes. Her design was altered to allow for a machine which automatically loaded and laid spar torpedoes below the water line, and was one of a very few spar torpedo armed vessels to be capable, at least in theory, of using more than one such weapon in a typical engagement. For most of the war, she was used for engineering tasks, primarily in the destruction of underwater obstacles, both natural and man-made. She did see combat on occasion, however, partly during her patrols of inland rivers, for which she was eventually provided with a small deck howitzer for self defense, but most notably at the final Battle of Trent's Reach in 1865. After the war, Spuyten Duyvil was used as an experimental platform for a variety of new weapons, and was one of the first American warships to launch a self-propelled torpedo.