All eyes are on 1776 this weekend, and while computer innovation wasn’t occurring 250 years ago, the American fight for independence was not technology-free. One of the lesser-known stories of the American Revolution is a proof-of-concept submarine financed by George Washington himself.
The legacy of the Turtle
While studying at Yale in the early 1770s, David Bushnell researched the underwater detonation of gunpowder. With the help of Phineas Pratt, Bushnell built the first American submarine. On Sept. 6, 1776, Sergeant Ezra Lee used what is now known as the “Turtle” to attack the British HMS Eagle in New York Harbor. The plan was to sail underwater to the Eagle’s hull and attach a keg of gunpowder to later be detonated using a timed device. Lee made it to the Eagle, but he struck an iron bar and was unable to complete his mission. A later attempt was also unsuccessful, and in October 1776 the British Navy sunk the sloop carrying the submarine. Bushnell recovered the vessel, but due to lack of funding, the project was abandoned. Submarine warfare next entered the picture during the Civil War.
Revolutionary technology before its time
Much of what we know about the “Turtle” comes from letters between Bushnell and the Founding Fathers. In 1785, George Washington wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “Bushnel is a Man of great Mechanical powers — fertile of invention — and a master in execution—He came to me in 1776 … Although I wanted faith myself, I furnished him with money, and other aids to carry it into execution. He laboured for sometime ineffectually, & though the advocates for his scheme continued sanguine he never did succeed. One accident or another was always intervening. I then thought, and still think, that it was an effort of genius …”
Bushnell shared the specs with Jefferson in a 1787 letter, and from this description comes the Turtle’s name: “The external shape of the sub-marine vessel bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size, joined together; the place of entrance into the vessel being represented by the opening made by the swell of the shells, at the head of the animal.”
Replicas of the Turtle can be viewed today at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Connecticut River Museum, which features a replica built for the Bicentennial in 1976.
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Photo: FOTOGRIN / Shutterstock
