Bisbee daily review., 1915-05-28
rAE FIRST SUBMARINE.

The United States is now building submarines more powerful than any existence They are 300 feet long they weigh 1900 tons they with the speed of cruiser on the and the speed of swordhsh der water They carry a dozen torpedo tubes apiece They can cruise across the Atlantic. They cost more than slOOOooO
 It s fitting that the nation that invented submarines houid speak the last word in their development For he first undersea boat was made in America It was uilt by a Connecticut yankee named David Bushnell nd was used in an attack on British warship in New York harbor during revolutionary
 The of that submarine the Turtle" It was curious contrivance shaped somewhat like the reptile
 was named for moving as sluegshly, and weighing nly one ton-though Samuel osgood in letter to John Adams regarding "the water machine from Con -ectcut" seemed to think that great weight. Bush ell had been planning his invention for many years nd had perfected 1t while he was student at Yale The year after his graduation 177s the year of our endence he offered the vessel to the American navy considerable negotiation his or accepted and the submarine was brought to New York. to be used the big 64gun British frigate Eagle then lying t anchor half mile off Governors Island.
 When the time the crucial test came Bushnell was .ck. An army sergeant named Ezra Lee was drafted or the job. It required but man to operate the ure-in fact there only room for one inside her nd Lee accordinly snse-hsnded dark night ,lth his queer little craft to sink the frieate
 Friends in rowboats toved him to within reaching Of the Eagle then cast him adrift counted on tide carrying him to the fgate before he sub merged his crsft. The tide unfortunately carried him ar beyond it and he two hours of hard work with ls screw to get back Then in the very shadow of e big. frovning warship he stood up for a moment few last breaths pure air closed the cover Of ia little coming tower and prepared to descend.
 He pressed the submersion pedals letting in enough to sink the boat. He had compass with phos horent dial that he could tell directions the dark nd water gauge with a floating similarly luminous
 indicate when he had sunk to a level wit hthe keel of ne Eagle His task with the drill hole in Che bottom the ship, by means of piercing screw, then attach is torpedo, consisting of barral charged with 15O ounds Of powder.
 At the proper level Lee made sure of the direction grasping the propeller, drove the piercing screw ard against the bottom of the frigate But instead Of bring soft wood to his surprise Lee struck Ie backed of and charged again and again but in vain ,e had struck band passed forward the ldder hinge to the ships quarter
 Lee was no sailor He couldn't understand the stua- on. Finally he tried to change his position entirely, Of merely feeling around for few inches and oing so he lost his bearings. He rowed around blind nd couldn't the frigate again The air was getting cry bad. His head ached violently. He decided to give ID the attempt He crked cord releasing POO pounds lead attached the bottom of the Turtle and bobbed
 ne surface loosed the hatch and revived himself with le fresh sar air Some British soldiers on Governors
 land him-it then dawn and gave chase, ,t he cast of the powderbarrel torpedo escaped
 David Bushnell must be credited also with the invention
 submarine mines He great difficulty at first con- ncng the learned men of College and the practical of the army and navy that gunpowder could be ...oded under water. When he had convinced them, he onduced sngle-banded campaign against the British
 gae Cerberus lying in the Connecticut river He made contact mine. be hoated against the side of the cnemys's hip and exploded automatically by meaas of unlock of flint and steel Unfortunately as he has re. orded this machine fell in with schooner at anchor stern the frigate and concealed from my sight and Gomoished the schooner aud three men and blew Che left alive oyerboard" That was in 1777 Later in he did in the Delaware precisely what the urks have done in the Dardanells in the past adrift floating to blow up the British shipping r5oye Philadelphia One boat was destroyed and the whole fleet had a bad fright
 Bushnell never won the recognition he deserved lie France. failed get satisfactory hearing there aad returned to become schoolteacher in Georgia. Corge
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