"Presented here is a collection of documents that concern the submersible Turtle, the world's first combat submarine. 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. 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.
To achieve these requirements, Bushnell devised a number of important innovations. Turtle was the first submersible to use water as ballast for submerging and raising the submarine. To maneuver under water, Turtle was the first submersible to use a screw propeller. Bushnell was also the first to equip a submersible with a breathing device. 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 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.
Bushnell 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. 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. The first attack on an enemy vessel by Turtle took place in New York harbor in September 1776. Turtle functioned as anticipated, but the attack, for reasons detailed in the account taken from the report of David Bushnell of October 1787 and from the journal of James Thacher, October 1776, both reproduced here, did not succeed. Two subsequent attempts to attack British warships were thwarted by navigational issues and tides. Before Turtle could be re-deployed, it was sunk along with the sloop transporting it by enemy fire on 9 October 1776. Although recovered, Turtle saw no further service. Its eventual fate remains a mystery…"
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