David Bushnell

Photo: A cut-away full size replica of the Turtle on display at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, UK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bushnell

David Bushnell (1740–1824), of Westbrook, Connecticut, was an American inventor during the Revolutionary War. He is credited with creating the first submarine ever used in combat, while studying at Yale University in 1775. He called it the Turtle because of its look in the water. His idea of using water as ballast for submerging and raising his submarine is still in use today, as is the screw propeller, which was used in the Turtle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(submersible)

While at Yale, he proved that gunpowder exploded under water. David Bushnell also made the first time bomb. He combined his ideas in an attempt to attack British ships which were blockading New York Harbor in the summer of 1776 by boring through their hulls and implanting time bombs, but failed every time due to a metal lining in the ships' hulls which was designed to protect against parasites in their previous station, the Caribbean. David Bushnell then created the Turtle. The Turtle eventually sank when it was being smuggled away from the British aboard a sloop, and a British frigate spotted the sloop and sank it. In 1777 Bushnell attempted to use a floating mine to blow up the HMS Cerberus in Niantic Bay; the mine struck a small boat near the Cerberus and detonated, destroying the vessel, but not the intended target. In 1778 he launched what became lauded as the Battle of the Kegs, in which a series of mines was floated down the Delaware River to attack British ships anchored there, killing two curious young boys and alerting the British. The attack was ineffectual.

In 1778, General Washington proposed the formation of a new military unit to be known as the "Corps of Sappers and Miners" and in the summer of the next year it was organized and on 8 June 1781, David Bushnell was appointed Captain and was at the Battle of Yorktown in the following Sept. and October, the only time the unit had had the opportunity to render special service. He served until the end of the war and before the unit was discharged, commanded the Corps and had become a member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, an organization formed during the war by officers of the rank of Captain and higher. On 6 May 1779, he was taken prisoner in Middlesex Parish, now Darien, Conn.

After peace was declared he returned to Connecticut then later traveled to France and then settled in Warrenton, Georgia where he taught at the Warrenton Academy and practiced medicine. He died in 1824, but before he died David was honored with a medal by George Washington. David Bushnell's Submarine Model is on display at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

In 1915, the U.S. Navy named the submarine tender USS Bushnell (AS-2) after him and it was launched in Bremerton, Washington. On 14 September 1942, another submarine tender of the same name (USS Bushnell (AS-15)) was launched.

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David Bushnell is credited as the inventor of the submarine, which was first used to launch explosives against British ships during the American Revolution (1775-83). Under a different identity, the New England native settled in Georgia after the war and spent the rest of his life there.

Bushnell was born on August 30, 1740, in Saybrook, Connecticut, to Sarah Ingham and Nehemiah Bushnell. He worked on his family's farm and spent his free time in the pursuit of knowledge. Accounts describe him as reticent, quiet, distant, and exceedingly private. When his father died, Bushnell sold his inheritance and moved to town, where he could prepare for higher education. Two years later, at the age of thirty-one, he entered Yale College (later Yale University) in New Haven.

While a student, Bushnell experimented with exploding timed gunpowder charges under water. During his final year at Yale, he spent his last penny constructing a manned submarine capable of employing weapons. Built entirely of oak beams, the elliptical craft resembled two conjoined turtle shells. Thus, the craft was given the name "Turtle." His graduation in the summer of 1775 coincided with the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and some in the Continental Congress, including Benjamin Franklin, felt that Bushnell's idea would be a useful weapon against the Royal Navy.

On September 6, 1776, the Turtle, piloted by Sergeant Ezra Lee of the Continental Army, was sent to attack the HMS Eagle off the coast of New York City, in an effort to break the British blockade. While Lee was not able to attach the explosive to the ship, he was able to detonate the charge. Though unsuccessful in the mission's ultimate goal, the event proved that the submarine and its weapon were operable. After two more unsuccessful attempts, Bushnell determined that better-trained operators were required and turned his attention to using mines to strike the enemy. He constructed two mines and set them afloat in Black Point Bay, in Connecticut, on August 13, 1777. The captain of the HMS Cerebus avoided destruction by simply cutting the rope carrying the mines, but they did destroy a nearby schooner.

Bushnell reworked his design and tried again later in the year. This time, he devised a mine suspended by wooden kegs that would detonate on contact. In late December the kegs were sent down the Delaware River toward British ships at anchor near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, most of the fleet had sailed. While the mines were unsuccessful in destroying their intended targets, they did detonate, frightening the enemy into firing at any object floating in the river. The combination of submarine and floating mine attacks checked the dominance of the Royal Navy.

In August 1779 Bushnell was appointed a captain-lieutenant in the Corps of Sappers and Miners—a predecessor of the modern day Corps of Engineers—in the Continental Army. Later promoted to the rank of captain, he participated in the allied siege at Yorktown, Virginia, in the fall of 1781. With peace declared in late 1783 Bushnell was honorably discharged and returned to Saybrook. He abruptly left in 1787 under the pretext of traveling to France to continue his underwater experiments. Some rumors circulated that he died in the French Revolution; others suggested that he made a fortune and returned to America only to lose it all. No matter what the true circumstance of his departure, Bushnell was never known to correspond with his family again.

One of the original settlers of Columbia County, Georgia, in the late 1790s was a teacher known as David Bush. In 1803 Bush bought a lot in Warrenton, in Warren County. When Warrenton was incorporated in 1810, Bush was a commissioner, and by 1818 he was a practicing physician. Sometime in January or early February 1826, Bush died. In his will to the prime benefactor, George Hargraves of Augusta, Bush revealed himself as David Bushnell, inventor of the submarine. Found among his belongings after his death was "some curious machinery" that was believed to be a model for a torpedo.

Although Bushnell had been a close friend of prominent Georgia legislator Abraham Baldwin at Yale, it is unknown why he chose to relocate to Georgia and change his identity. Today, Bushnell is credited with the advent of submarine warfare and, in recognition of his contributions, his adopted state declared August 2, 2004, as David Bushnell Day.