The first attack on an enemy vessel by Turtle took place in New York harbor in September 1776. Benjamin Gale to Silas Deane, 7 December 1775 and 1 February 1776 and reproduced here, the British fleet had departed from that harbor before Turtle was operational. Bushnell was the first to demonstrate that gunpowder could be exploded under water and his mine was the first “time bomb,” allowing the operator of the Turtle to attach the mine and then to retire a safe distance before it detonated.īushnell had devised Turtle as a means of breaking the British blockade of Boston harbor but because of problems with the vessel, detailed in the letters of Dr. Finally, the weaponry of Turtle, which consisted of a “torpedo,” or mine that could be attached to the hull of the target ship, was innovative as well. Bushnell was also the first to equip a submersible with a breathing device. To maneuver under water, Turtle was the first submersible to use a screw propeller. Turtle was the first submersible to use water as ballast for submerging and raising the submarine. To achieve these requirements, Bushnell devised a number of important innovations. Designed in 1771-1775 while Bushnell was a Yale College undergraduate, it embodied the four basic requirements for a successful military submarine: the ability to submerge the ability to maneuver under water the ability to maintain an adequate air supply to support the operator of the craft and the ability to carry out effective offensive operations against an enemy surface vessel. Named Turtle because its inventor, David Bushnell, believed the craft resembled “two upper tortoise shells of equal size, joined together,” it saw action in the first days of the American Revolution. Presented here is a collection of documents that concern the submersible Turtle, the world’s first combat submarine.
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