The Revolutionary War’s One-Person Submarine Tried to Bomb a British Warship

Nearly 250 years ago, an American inventor sent a one-person submarine beneath New York Harbor on a mission to attack the Royal Navy’s flagship. The target was HMS Eagle, and the weapon was a timed bomb meant to be fastened to the ship’s hull. The vessel, called the Turtle, was designed by Connecticut inventor David Bushnell during the American Revolution. Built from oak and iron hoops, it had an acorn-like shape and could carry only one person. Its operator moved the craft with a pedal-driven front propeller and a hand crank, while valves and bilge pumps controlled its depth. Bushnell believed an explosive attached below a ship’s waterline could cause more damage than one placed on its deck. The Turtle’s bomb was housed in a powder magazine that could be screwed onto an enemy hull. A timer allowed the operator to set the explosion for any period of less than 12 hours. The submarine was equipped with small windows, air vents and instruments coated with bioluminescent “foxfire” fungus so they could be seen in darkness. The fungus, however, produced light only above a certain temperature, making it unusable during winter operations. The Turtle was initially intended for an attack near Boston, but British ships moved to New York before the craft and its crew were ready. Bushnell’s brother Ezra, who was expected to pilot it, became ill. Around midnight on September 6, 1776, Continental Army soldier Ezra Lee took the submarine toward the Eagle. According to Lee’s later account, he reached the ship and tried to drive a screw into its metal hull. The mechanism would not penetrate. Lee abandoned the attempt and escaped, leaving the explosive behind. It later detonated in the harbor without damaging the Eagle, although the blast startled nearby vessels. Two further attempts, one involving Lee and another involving pilot Phineas Pratt, also failed. The Turtle’s ultimate fate is uncertain. A sloop carrying it was reportedly sunk by the British in October 1776, while Bushnell later claimed he recovered the submarine and returned it home. The son of Pratt reportedly said he saw disassembled parts of the craft in 1800. Historians cited by Smithsonian Magazine describe the Turtle as an early indication of the possibilities of underwater warfare, not the beginning of the submarine age. Its failed attacks nevertheless demonstrated how a small, inexpensive craft might threaten a much larger naval force without confronting it directly.