one o'clock
of dynamite an hour upon a hostile fleet or fortifications . Each cruiser also carried two under-water torpedo tubes ahead and two astern . The funnels emitted no smoke , but merely supplied draught to the petroleum furnaces , which burned with practically no waste , and developed a head of steam which drove the long submerged hulls through the water at a rate of thirty-two knots , or more than thirty-six miles an hour . Such was the enormous naval armament , manned by nearly a hundred thousand men , which hoisted the Federation flag at one o'clock on the afternoon of the 30th of November , when orders were telegraphed north and south from Washington to get ready for sea . Two hours later the vast flotilla of warships and transports had cleared American waters , and was converging towards a point indicated by the intersection of the 41st parallel of latitude with the 40th meridian of longitude . At this ocean rendezvous the divisions of the fleet and its convoys met and shaped their course for the mouth of the English Channel . They proceeded in column of line abreast three deep , headed by the dynamite cruisers , after which came the other warships which had formed the American Navy , and after these again came the troopships and transports properly protected by cruisers on their flanks and in their rear .