Turtle (submarine)
 Replica of Bushnell's Turtle in the Monaco Oceanographic Museum
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The Turtle is a historic watercraft. It is considered to be the first real submarine , as two screws operated by hand cranks served as the drive and not, as with all predecessors, a sail or oarsman on the surface of the water drove the vehicle underwater. The Turtle was also the first submarine to be used in a war.
The Turtle was built by the American David Bushnell in 1776 with the aim of attaching an explosive charge to enemy ships in port underwater.
Viewed from the outside, the boat looked similar to a large killer clam or a turtle , which is why it was given this name. The turtle was about 2.5 m long, 2 m high and almost 1 m wide. It consisted of two connected, shell-like wooden shells. Subsequently, all connecting seams and frames were sealed with pitch . It offered space for a man crew. For diving, water was let into the body of the turtle , which was then manually pumped out again in order to surface. The idea of developing the submarine was based on its later use as a weapon. The submarine should approach enemy ships underwater, then drill a hole in the hull and place an explosive charge there, which should detonate after a while. Before the first use, the submarine was tested intensively in the Connecticut River by Ezra Bushnell , the brother of the inventor.
On September 7, 1776, she was used in the American War of Independence . The American sergeant Ezra Lee drove the turtle . The aim was to destroy the British warship HMS Eagle , which was anchored off Liberty Island . Two attempts to attach a time bomb filled with gunpowder to the fuselage failed because the Eagle was shod with metal. Sergeant Lee eventually broke off the operation.
See also
- Monkfish , 1856
- Sub Marine Explorer , 1865
literature
- Alex Roland, Underwater Warfare in the Age of Sail (Indiana University Press, 1978), Chapters 5 and 6 ISBN 0-253-31824-6
