David Bushnell (1740 – 1824), while a patriot student at Yale University, imagined a submersible craft capable of underwater attack upon enemy shipping. To achieve his vision, the future combat engineer and munitions expert had to develop several innovations that ultimately modernized naval warfare. But unfairly, history has pretty much credited Bushnell as the sole ‘genius’ behind the project. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, Bushnell began working on the project with New Haven’s wealthy inventor and fellow patriot, Isaac Doolittle (1721 – 1800). The pair assembled the earliest true submarine affectionately named the Turtle. But to do so required several firsts.
Bushnell idea of using water as ballast for submerging and raising a submersible, considered simple and ingenious, is still in use to this day. So too the screw or two-blade propeller, as the name indicates to propel a vessel, was first crafted by Doolittle for the Turtle, which later revolutionized all steam and coal driven water craft. While a student at Yale, Bushnell was the first to demonstrate that gunpowder could explode underwater. Even more so, again with the help of Doolittle’s knowledge of brass and clock mechanics, was the first ever to construct a time-bomb; a clock-work mechanism that used a flint-lock sparking mechanism to explode water tight black powder. The plan was to attach the time bomb to the hull of a British man-of-war. Lastly, further expanding his knowledge of explosives, Bushnell became the father of ‘sea mines’, the first to use a firelock system, similar to the breech of a musket, to ignite water-tight black powder upon contact. They were called torpedoes as were all explosive water devises at that time.
History of Submarines and Mines
The idea of exploding ships by the use of mines had been around since the 14th century. The Chinees floated wooden boxes laden with black powder. However, the explosive remained above water and could only be set off manually by tugging on a trigger mechanism attached by a long cord to either another vessel or on land. What could be called the first submarine was designed by Dutch engineer and inventor Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633). By 1620, he had moved to England where he designed and built a wooden vessel that could be propelled underwater. This first submarine, though billed as such, did not fully submerge. Weighted down so a large portion remained underwater, it used sixteen surface oars to drive it up the Thames in London during its demonstration. Because a portion remained on the surface and in full view, Drebbel’s submarine was never seriously considered by the English Navy. Bushnell and Doolittle resolved these issues to produce the first fully submersible for use in war. They mechanized contact mines of water-tight explosives, used water as ballast to sink and float the craft, and instead of oars, implemented a specially designed two-blade propeller to drive the craft, both forward and in reverse.
David Bushnell and Isaac Doolittle
David Bushnell was born into a farming family in Saybrook, Connecticut, present day Westbrook. The eldest of five children, David lived on and worked the family farm. After his father’s death, Nehemiah Bushnell (1710 – 1762), David carried on at the farm for another nine years before selling out his share to his brother Ezra. In 1771, at thirty-one David entered Yale College in 1771. He was at a relatively old age, considering most of his peers were barely teenagers. He soon became passionately involved in politics, siding with patriot Whigs while seeking a means in which he could contribute to the promise of armed conflict with England. As he experimented with gun powder and its usage, he teamed up with New Haven’s accomplished businessman, inventor, and fellow patriot, Isaac Doolittle.
Doolittle, the ‘unsung hero’ who received little or no credit for the Turtle, was skilled in mechanics, particularly the intricacies of clock mechanisms. A sought-after watchmaker and clockmaker, he would also manufacture and sell at his shop, the first brass wheel hall clocks in America. He was also an engraver and printer of legal forms and currency; in 1769 he became the first in America to design, manufacture, and sell a printing press. So too he sold scientific instruments in his shop, half a block from the Yale campus, which may account for his initial association with Bushnell, twenty years younger. So too, Yale president, Ezra Stiles, knew of Doolittle’s work and political leanings, calling him a ‘good Whig’, and may have drawn together his student of explosives to the wealthy mechanical wizard. Among the many hats Doolittle wore, he had been the founder and long-time warden of New Haven’s Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green. As well as being in charge of New Haven’s port inspection and beacon-alarm systems. Without Doolittle’s financial investment and designing and building the mechanical parts, along with his political clout, the Turtle would have remained Bushnell’s dream.
Bankrolling the Contraption
Several historical accounts credit Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull’s influence with General George Washington to secure funds to bankroll the project. At a time when Washington needed every pence to feed, clothe, secure powder, and arm his troops, he wasn’t about to shell out money for a hairbrained scheme that might or might not work. Trumbull didn’t need Washington to provide the funds. Local patriot Doolittle was digging deep in his pockets to build the craft. But the governor did persuade the lofty general to give the ‘infernal vessel’ a try. And as far as Washington was concerned, what did he have to lose?…only a half-crazed colonial to climb inside and power the contraption up to a British hull and try to blast it out of the water. It is safe to say that without Doolittle’s ready cash and mechanical knowhow, plus Bushnell’s experiments in explosives, the Turtle, as the first submersible to be used in war, would never have occurred. So too the development of torpedo like mines and most importantly, the two-blade propeller and mechanism that drove it; whose arrival in the late 1700’s proved to be perfect timing for the development of steam and coal powered ships.
Doolittle’s Contribution Shrugged
Though Doolittle’s contribution was invaluable to the design and construction of the Turtle, Dr. Benjamin Gale, instructor at Yale who at the time knew of the project, afterwards publicly touted Bushnell’s accomplishments in constructing the Turtle, awarding him many of its innovations. It may be assumed that Gale was interested in garnishing laurels for Yale and one of its students over Doolittle’s expertise and hard work, not to mention funding the project. Historians took note and followed Gale’s lead by giving most of the credit to Bushnell. It was Doolittle who designed and crafted the brass and moving parts of the Turtle along with several other ingenious features. Among his innovations was the propulsion system, navigational instruments, the brass foot-operated water-ballast and forcing pumps (Bushnell envisioned using water as a ballast), the depth gauge and compass, the brass crown hatch, the hand-operated propeller crank and foot-driven treadle with flywheel, the auger to drill into ship’s hull to attach exploding device, and the clockwork for the detonator ‘time bomb’. According to a letter from Gale to Benjamin Franklin, who had been kept abreast of the project (perhaps through Doolittle’s prior work building the first American printing press), Doolittle designed and built the most innovative feature of the Turtle, the screw propeller. Gale excitedly wrote that it was an “oar for rowing forward or backward”, with “no precedent” design. In another letter by Gale to Silas Dean (Connecticut delegate to Congress) he emphatically wrote that the propeller was as “a pair of oars fixed like the two opposite arms of a windmill…” One aspect Doolittle designed, which ultimately failed, was the attachment mechanism that used a wooden auger to drill into the ship’s hull to secure the blasting device. The only function of the Turtle that did not work leading to its failed attempt when first used in combat.
Turtle Launched on its First Mission
The pear-shaped Turtle of oak and reinforced iron bands measured about seven and a half feet long by six feet wide. It was christened the Turtle for its elongated shape. It was just large enough to accommodate one operator. Lead ballast kept the craft balanced while water ballast raised and lowered the craft underwater. The vessel was powered entirely by hands and feet. Bushnell, who had tested the craft and demonstrated its efficiency, was considered too fragile to man the vessel in combat. Several volunteers offered their services, among whom selected to take the ship into combat was Sergeant Ezra Lee (1749-1821) of the 10th Connecticut Regiment. Lee was the brother-in-law of Brigadier General Samuel Holden Parsons, both men of Lyme, Connecticut. The British fleet had arrived New York City in force in July, 1776. Between the American loss at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776 and the British invasion of Manhattan, September 15, 1776, there was a period of ‘wait and see’ as Washington eyed British General William Howe’s next move. Washington decided to give the Turtle its chance. He ordered the attack on General Howe’s flagship, the 64-gun ship-of-the-line HMS Eagle.
There is much misconception as to what actually occurred the evening of September 7th. HMS Eagle was anchored off Governors Island, just south of Manhattan at a point where the Hudson and East Rivers merge; meaning that both river currents and tidal currents were very strong and complex. For the Turtle to be stable enough to work the auger drill to plant the explosive, it must do so during the short period of time when the incoming tide was balanced by the river currents. Most historical accounts state that when Lee drilled into the Eagle’s hull, he hit a layer of copper sheeting which could not be penetrated by the wooden drill. Bushnell had demonstrated earlier that the copper sheeting would not be a problem to bore through. Most likely Lee struck a metal rudder support which was much thicker than the copper sheeting. He also may have had trouble steading the craft in the strong currents to keep it close enough to the ship’s hull for the drill to be effective. Either way, Lee attempted another spot in the hull, but was unable to remain beneath the ship. At this point he abandoned the attempt and pulled away. As he did so, the Turtle was spotted and a long boat pursued it. At that point Lee released the keg of powder. Some accounts state that the powder blew up and the pursuit called off. Others report no blast occurred. Lee remained several hours in the water before he made good his escape unmolested.
Two More Attempts and Loss of Turtle
Washington was not deterred by the Turtle’s failure. It is reported that Washington congratulated Lee on his efforts and ordered another attempt at British shipping. A second attempt was ordered to destroy a British frigate that lay in the Hudson River opposite the village of Bloomingdale, on the western shore of Manhattan Island just north of the city. On the night of October 5th, as the small ship made its approach, Lee stated afterward that he was discovered by the ship’s watch and had to once more abandon the effort. Phineas Pratt, another trained operator, tried shortly after, but was spotted in the moonlight and fired upon before he could escape. A few days later both the Turtle and its tender vessel were sunk just off Fort Lee, along the New Jersey shore of the Hudson. Years later and after the war, Bushnell wrote to Thomas Jefferson that he had salvaged the Turtle, yet its fate remained unknown leaving doubt as to Bushnell’s claim.
Fate of the Turtle Inventors and Crewman Lee
For Lee, even though he had failed in his missions, he received Washington’s praise and carried on with the war in the Connecticut 10th and 1st and the last couple of years in the 5th. He would fight in the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth, remaining in the service for the remainder of the war as regimental quartermaster and paymaster. He would live to a ripe old age no doubt speaking of his unique war experiences. He is buried in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme, Connecticut. His 1821 obituary mentioned that “This soldier is the only man who fought the enemy upon land, upon water, and under the water.”
Isaac Doolittle had been the armorer for Connecticut Regiments during the French and Indian War. As such he gained a great deal of knowledge and experience handling gun powder. The necessary element, besides his skills as a clock mechanic, to design and construct the Turtle. From 1776 until the conclusion of the war, he continued his many varied businesses while serving on the Committee of Safety, the military arm of Committees of Correspondence, local legislatures during the war. After the war, Doolittle’s health failed in 1785 and he suspended business activity for several years. Yet in January, 1788, he announced in a newspaper advertisement his return to health and business in his reopened shop. Doolittle continued to make clocks and cast bells until 1797, when his health failed again and he largely retired from business. He died on February 13, 1800 at age 78, according to his obituary, “after a long and distressing illness of several years”, honored as “a very worthy and respectable character”. He was buried on the Green in New Haven near the State House.
Though fragile in health, Bushnell carried on his work. He gave up the idea of crafting another submarine and furthered his development of sea or drifting contact mines called at the time, torpedoes. These were watertight kegs filled with gunpowder that lay in harbors or were floated down rivers toward the enemy. The kegs were detonated by a sparking mechanism similar to a musket’s firelock when it struck the side of a ship. In the fall of 1777, when American forts and ships contested the British advance up the Delaware River, these mines were floated down the Delaware. The only enemy casualty occurred when one of the mines stuck a small boat of the frigate HMS Cerberus. The blast killed four sailors. Another mine erupted, injuring some curious boys strolling along the river’s shore. The following year, Washington proposed the formation of a new military unit to be known as the “Corps of Sappers and Miners (combat engineers). The next year, Bushnell was given command of the corps with the rank of Captain-lieutenant on August 2, 1779. Bushnell would be present at the Siege of Yorktown in September and October of 1781, the only time the newly formed Sappers would serve in combat.
After the war, Bushnell was commissioned commander of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at West Point. After the war, Bushnell traveled briefly to France to study medicine. When his brother Ezra died in 1786, Bushnell left Connecticut for Warrenton, Georgia along with Yale classmate Abraham Baldwin. There he taught at Franklin College and continued to work on delivery systems for underwater mines. Having finished his medical studies, he later served his community as a medical doctor. He died in Warrenton, George and is buried at the Warrenton Cemetery.
Afterward
David Bushnell’s submarine invention and underwater mines, with no mention of Isaac Doolittle, were first made known to the American public in 1798 when Thomas Jefferson gave a lecture to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. He used as the source for his talk a 1787 letter to him from David Bushnell documenting in detail both inventions. Bushnell, as echoed by Jefferson, claimed credit for the development of the Turtle. The description of the inventions listed in the letter to Jefferson was later printed and published, becoming the basis for Bushnell’s honor as the Father of Submarine Warfare.
Shortly after the war, according to Dr. Benjamin Gale of Yale, four replicas of the Turtle were constructed. There have been several modern replicas of the Turtle and are on display. One at the Connecticut River Museum, another at the Navy’s Submarine Force Library and Museum, a third at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, and also at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.
