At Plymouth, I reached the site of William Cushing‘s great triumph, the place where he sank the CSS Albemarle with a manual torpedo, a perfectly ridiculous offensive weapon. At a lovely little museum devoted to the event and to the Albemarle‘s earlier triumphs and to otherCivil War events in Plymouth, I met some wonderful people, and had a good chat. Above: the American flag that flew over Plymouth during parts of the war. Below: Cushing’s personal model of the torpedo, gifted to him by admirers in Buffalo; the museum’s 3/8 scale model of the ironclad; looking at the Roanoke upstream (the Albemarle was sunk on the left bank); and looking downstream (on the horizon is where the Albemarle sunk the USS Southwick.)
