![]() Apparently, during Turtle's trials, Bushnell tested this aparatus against a hulk in the Conecticut River.īushnell attempted to keep his strange work a secret and completed Turtle in late October or early November of 1775. The clock-work mechanism, set for about an hour's time, would then set off the charge, hopefully after the submarine had cleared the area. Fitted piggy-back style abaft the conning tower, the "torpedo" was to be fastened to a bolt screwed into the enemy's hull. ![]() ![]() The "torpedo" was an egg-shaped casing filled with 150 pounds of gunpowder and fitted with a rudimentary clock-work detonator. The tubes themselves actually resembled a crude snorkel arrangement.Īs to the craft's offensive capability, Bushnell invented a "torpedo" which would be carried into action and then jettisoned to be secured against an enemy ship's hull. Valves in these pipes would automatically shut them while the vessel was submerged. The combination of the craft's shape and the ballast load, 700 pounds (500 fixed and 200 detachable), gave Turtle a low center of gravity and made her quite stable.Īir was supplied by a pair of tubes fitted through the conning tower hatch. It was possible for Turtle's operator to propel the craft forward by utilizing the foot-treadle to operate the bow propeller while simultaneously using the hand-operated second propeller to move the craft up or down. Ascent or descent was made possible by a second propeller fitted just ahead of the low conning tower arrangement. Maneuverability in the horizontal plane was achieved by a hand- or foot-cranked propeller fitted at the bow. When submerged, Turtle was illuminated by instruments made of a phosphorescent wood known as "fox fire." This arrangement allowed the operator to see where he was going and permitted light to illuminate the equipment necessary to operate the submarine. A crude conning tower, fitted with round, glass ports projected some six or seven inches above the surface of the water. To surface, the man operating the submarine would pump out the bilges. Turtle could be made to submerge by simply flooding her bilges with sea water. The submersible was named Turtle because Bushnell thought that this unique craft bore some resemblance to "two upper tortoise shells of equal size, joined together."Ĭonceived as a means of breaking the British blockade of Boston harbor, the submersible embodied four basic requirements for a successful military submarine: the ability to (1) submerge, (2) to maneuver under water, (3) to maintain an adequate air supply to support the operator of the craft, and (4) to carry out effective offensive action against an enemy surface ship. The first Turtle was designed in 1771 by David Bushnell, a Yale student, and built with the help of his brother, Ezra Bushnell, in 1775 at Saybrook, Conn. The first Turtle was named for the marine reptile the second for Turtle Town, a small unincorporated town in Polk County, Tenn.
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