It is an odd circumstance that twice within little more than a century rockets should have “rocketed” into fame as a secret weapon in the midst of a great world war. The spectacular rise of the rocket as a major weapon in the current war lends interest to its earlier history, now in process of repetition.
Then as now its initial use was on shore as a small caliber short range weapon. Then as now this led to a rapid development afloat such that small naval craft could rapidly deliver a great volume of hard hits against strong shore positions. Then as now there was speculation as to the possible value of rockets as a purely naval weapon—ship to ship or fleet to fleet. During the first half of the nineteenth century rockets had a considerable vogue in European armies that has some parallel to their recent use by the Germans against Allied armies. Nothing in the past, however, approaches the recent long- range bombardment of England, and employment by aircraft is of course strictly modern. The nearest thing to the latter in ancient times, omitting mere pyrotechnics, was a rocket-propelled arrow said to have been used by the Chinese in about 1232 as an incendiary.
Herein we are concerned only with the rocketed projectile, equivalent to cannon fire. Propulsion of other objects by rockets is beside our point. However, mention might be made of the legendary ingenuity of a Chinese scholar named Wan-Hoo who probably lived about the time of the “fire-arrow.” He fitted a battery of large rockets to the rear of a comfortable chair, to which there was also attached several kites. Seating himself in the chair Wan-Hoo commanded the rockets to be ignited. The experiment was a perfect success only in case Wan-Hoo was seeking his ancestors, since he vanished forever amid roaring flame and smoke.
As an artillery equivalent rockets were used perhaps for the first time by Hyder Ali, a soldier-adventurer of Mysore, who became one of the most formidable of British opponents in India. In about the year 1780 he is said to have had a rocket corps of 1,200 men in his army and to have used rockets up to 12 pounds, with a range of nearly 1,000 yards. His son, killed in 1799, is supposed to have increased the rocket corps to 5,000. With this example before them, British ordnance officials in London attempted a similar development through experiments at the Royal Laboratory, but had little success.
In 1804 William Congreve of London picked up the thread of evolution. This was the period of Napoleon’s preparations for an invasion of England, which fact doubtless favored his efforts. Congreve knew of the abortive experiments in the Royal Laboratory and of the prior use of rockets in India, and of their deficient range and weight. It occurred to him that
as the projectile force of the rocket is exerted without any reaction upon the point from which it is discharged, it might be successfully applied both afloat and ashore, as a military engine, in many cases where, from the violent recoil produced by exploding gunpowder, the use of artillery, according to the ordinary modes, is either entirely impossible, or at best very limited.1
He first worked on the problem of sufficient range, at his own expense. The largest rockets that could be made in London would not range more than 500 or 600 yards. Through improved designs he attained 1,500 yards, and then with heavier rockets, 2,000. Napoleon’s invasion preparations at Boulogne were reaching large proportions. The hour was critical.
“In this state of the weapon” writes Congreve,
I resolved to lay before Mr. Pitt [the Prime Minister] a plan for the annoyance of Boulogne by fire rockets; in consequence of which, he was pleased to attend an experiment, with Lord Castlereagh and Lord Mulgrave, at Woolwich; when from their conviction of the powers of the weapon, it was determined that an attack should be made on the [invasion] flotilla by projecting a large quantity [of rockets] from men of war launches. Sir Sidney Smith was appointed to the command of the Boulogne Squadron [British] and ten launches were fitted under my direction for this particular service.
Three thousand rockets of 6- and 8- pounder size were loaded into the launches and in November, 1805, the expedition, including supporting vessels, assembled off Boulogne. During the night of the 21st as the launches moved in for the attack, the light wind suddenly shifted to the northwest and rapidly increased to a gale. Before a rocket could be fired the launches were recalled. With difficulty the squadron got out of the bay, but five of the ten launches were swamped and the attack was abandoned for that year. Thus ended the first naval attempt to use rockets.
An intriguing sidelight is the interest taken by Lord Nelson in the new weapon. His last visit to England during the summer of 1805 coincided with preparations for the Boulogne enterprise. That he familiarized himself with the matter is shown by one of his last letters, written on board the Victory off Cadiz, to Captain Blakewood only a week before Trafalgar, from which the following is quoted:
If they [the enemy fleet] do not come forth soon, I shall then rather incline to think they will detach squadrons: but, I hope, either in the whole, or in part, we shall get at them. I am confident in your look out upon them. I expect three stout fire-ships from England; then, with a good breeze, so that the gun-boats cannot move, and yet not so much but that a gig can with ease row out, I should hope that, at least, the gentry might be disturbed: and I should not be surprised if Mr. Francis and his catamarans were sent, and Colonel Congreve and his rockets. But, all this keep to yourself; for officers will talk, and there is no occasion to put the enemy upon their guard. When those things arrive, we will consult how to manage them, and I shall have the two bombs ready by that time.
Undismayed by the abortive attempt of 1805, the indefatigable Congreve proceeded actively to improve his weapon and then to urge a renewal of the very novel enterprise against Boulogne. He experimented with 32- pounders “forming them with iron cases instead of paper,” and carrying as much “carcass composition” as a 10-inch mortar projectile. Moreover it was very gratifying that the greatly increased weight also stepped up the range substantially to 3,000 yards; a matter of great importance in competition with the short range guns of the day. The inconvenience of the rocket stick was much lessened by reducing its length from 25 to 15 feet.
With such promising new equipment eighteen boats of the squadron rowed into Boulogne Bay on October 8, 1806, and discharged more than 200 rockets in half an hour. Within ten minutes the town was on fire, and such was the tactical surprise and astonishment ashore that not a shot was returned. Following this highly successful demonstration of the utility and effectiveness of the weapon, improvements in its characteristics went forward steadily, and moreover great pains were taken to preserve secrecy respecting its design. For the first time the rocket emerged as a “secret weapon.” We of today have been witness merely to the second time.
The British were not slow to capitalize upon the success of the Congreve Rocket. In 1807 they were used by the fleet under Lord Cathcart that bombarded Copenhagen and did great destruction to the city. Congreve himself was present to supervise the rocket attack. He also assisted personally in the enterprise against Basque Road in 1809, when the bombarding squadron included three rocket ships—the Whiting, Nimrod, and King George. The French squadron, together with shipping and harbor installations, were brought under attack, and the squadron was driven to shelter well in shore. Rockets were again employed by the British fleet in its attack on Danzig in 1813, when the French defending forces ashore used a few of their own in reply. There were a good many similar episodes at this period in both European and American waters.
America’s baptism of rockets seems to have occurred in 1813 when a British squadron raided Chesapeake Bay. Other sections of our coast may have been similarly treated. In May at Havre de Grace a Congreve rocket struck and killed an American named Webster. During the following summer rockets were employed several times against the flotilla of Commodore Barney that was defending the Patuxent River; this perhaps being the first case of rockets being used in an engagement between two wholly naval forces. One of Barney’s barges was hit and set on fire, one man being killed.
With only one sloop, one 2-gun vessel, 13 barges and 500 men, Barney had the temerity to oppose the advance of a British force consisting of a 74-gun ship-of-the-line, a 38- gun frigate, an 18-gun brig, and several smaller craft. When this strong hostile squadron entered the Patuxent, Barney took refuge in St. Leonard’s Creek from which he could prey upon the enemy’s communications should they proceed farther up-river. In order to dislodge him the British made a series of five attacks with small vessels, apparently using rockets each time. On the last occasion the enemy employed twenty-one barges, one rocket boat and two armed schooners, but the American Commodore not only withstood the onslaught but drove the attackers back to the support of their heavy ships. A few days later, having been reinforced by a company of marines and a battery of artillery, Barney actually attacked the heavy ships and then withdrew up the Patuxent River.
The British also used rockets at Bladensburg during their amphibious expedition against Washington in August, 1814. As is well known, the attacking naval force moved up the Patuxent River and thence by land, virtually unopposed to Bladensburg. Here an American force had been hastily assembled for a stand in defense of the capital. It included the veteran sturdy bluejackets under the redoubtable Commodore Barney. Early in the engagement British rockets were directed against two of our regiments on the flank, and they broke and fled in wild disorder. The Fifth Maryland Infantry made a good resistance, but it was principally the bluejackets who stemmed the tide of panic in the face of the uncanny weapon. No doubt the British army would have taken and burned Washington without the aid of rockets, yet we must give Sir William Congreve some part in that tragic play.
Again his influence was felt at Baltimore a few weeks later, but with less success. Then “the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air” inspired Francis Scott Key’s poem that was afterwards set to music in a national anthem. For this occasion the British had fitted one vessel as a “rocket-ship,” which was accompanied by a number of similarly armed barges. In ascending the Patapsco to take Fort McHenry in rear, however, they were surprised and forced to retreat with heavy loses by the fire of three shore batteries of whose existence they apparently had been ignorant. Of course, the principal element in saving Baltimore was the general land defense, as organized by Commodore Rodgers, rather than the comparatively minor repulse of the rocket craft.
The last occasion in the War of 1812 when American troops were subjected to the terrors of the new weapon was at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. On January 8 the British launched their final general assault under a “cloud of rockets” that “continued to fall in showers during the whole attack.” The steadfast Americans under Jackson were unshaken behind their breastworks, while good old-fashioned gunfire from the ships’ guns that had been landed across the river by Commodore Patterson enfiladed the charging British lines. Naval artillery here proved much more effective than rockets.
Among navies the British took much the greatest interest in rockets, which is scarcely surprising in view of their early pioneering and success, together with the care taken to preserve a degree of secrecy. Besides the instances mentioned of British naval use, there were numerous others. In the large expedition up the Parana River in 1846 (jointly with the French) rockets were used rather extensively by a detachment under Commander MacKinnon, R.N. He had great faith in their naval virtues, pointing to what has recently become again familiar comment —the tremendous volume of fire a small rocket craft is able to deliver, compared with the gunfire of very much larger vessels.
Until recently the American Navy apparently was never favorable to the use of rockets, except for signaling. For the latter purpose a “Pyrotechnist” named Coston began making them in 1844 at the “Naval Laboratory.” In 1846 there was a movement to adopt them as a weapon in our Navy because of a recent invention eliminating the need of the awkward “stick,” and giving greater accuracy by spinning the projectile about its long axis during flight. Mr. William Hale, an American, accomplished this by means of curved vanes in the tail upon which exhaust gases impinged, thus providing a turbine effect. The gyroscopic influence of the spin, of course, tended to keep the projectile on a steady course, as with a rifle.
Against the recommendations of a Board, in 1846, the then Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, Commodore Warrington, successfully opposed our adoption of the improved rocket except experimentally. He said:
Strong objections may be urged against their becoming a portion of our offensive weapons; by reason of the danger of accidental ignition, by the inconvenience of transportation, and the difficulty of giving them a right direction when a vessel is in motion.
To naval readers the employment of rockets for strictly military purposes by western armies, although quite universal, will be of less interest and therefore will require but a brief summary herein. During the Leipzig campaign against Napoleon in 1813, the British sprang their “secret weapon” and obtained a considerable degree of tactical surprise and success. Soon afterwards the rocket was introduced into all important armies, and retained as a weapon for many years—in the British Army as late as nearly 1890.
The American Army took an early interest in the weapon, which became firmly established therein after the improvements by Mr. Hale. Rockets were used against Vera Cruz in 1847 and subsequently in General Scott’s campaign inland. They also may have been used to a limited extent early in the Civil War, when their maximum range had been increased to about 3,700 yards. In competition with the gun, however, with respect to both range and accuracy the rocket rapidly passed into the discard.
Its dazzling reappearance in the current era has more than justified the faith of a tiny group of die-hards. In amphibious operations, in aircraft, and as a very long-range bombardment missile, the rocket seems to be with us for good. Nowadays not even the sky is any limit to ardent advocates whose imagination soars at least to the moon. Could the spirit of Wan-Hoo possibly be beckoning from there?
1. Congreve’s A Concise Account of the Origin and Progress of the Rocket System, written in 1807, published in London in 1810.