The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-05

appears that David .Bushnell set sail for France, to get out of the way of the British, who might discover that
 his, madness was feigned. He lived there under the names of Dr. Bush,
 and when he returned to America he
 went to Georgia and there died. His
 grandnephew says that the doctor
 was evfd ently well paid for his me.
 chanica1 genius somewhere, for he re-
 members his own father, Nemiah
 Bushnell. telling how Uncle David
 had called him and his two brothers
 together and presented each of them
 with a legacy of $3,O0O. Whether
 the money came from a grant of the
 ContientaI congress, whether it was
 in gold or the worthless paper cur
 rency of the Continetal period the
 present David Bushnell does not re- member; he knows only that his in 5ventive granduncle died. an old bach elor. in 1924. without ever returning from Georgia. to the Westbrook home stead.
 It is understood that some o fthe Bushnell relatives, hearing of the in with many. Of the inventors private papers, among them undoubtedly many of his earlier plans for the 'stIr- tle, hoping to prove property. That they succeeded in this hope seems to have been the case, they. never
 
 surrounding country again, and as the other relatives. even those more directly descended from David, never heard anything from the inventors property.
 As result of this a considerable coofness is understood to have grown up between two branches Of tI1e fam fly, which, in view of the recent ad- vertising by the United States naval authorities for the youngest unnar- ried female descendant of David | Bushnell to name the new submarine l for her ancestor, may develop into l an interesting controversy. Of the | direct line, there are no unmarried l daughters living. David Bushnell of | Essex having only one daughter, Mrs. 1 Franklin Wooster of Deep River. By a less direct line, Mrs J. A. Post of | Westbrook, would be, if unmarried another aSpirant for the honor of | christening the new torpedo boat She has a. little daughter, but owing to the l
 and a half years old, it seems as I though the original Westbrook branch 1 of the Bushnell, the ones having the best claim to being the next of kim will be unrepresented at the bottle smashing Baptism of the new under water terror
 Perhaps the most famous exploit E of the old turtle was it's first voy- age in early spring Of 1 ITS, against the British shipping in New York 41ar- Dor. The odd craft was shipped from it's hiding place near SaybreoIx on a vessel bound for New r York, and on arrival there was taken ashofe and | made ready with the greatest secrecy David BrshnelTs brother, Ezra, was to. have made the descent, but was taken i'll and his place was filled by Captain Ezra Lee of the Continental army. It is said that Washington and his officers were stationed on top Of E ] Broadway building. to watch thel the attack on the ssEsa,E1e.p ship of the line in the British fleet rhe Turtle with Captain Lee. .safe-l y ensconced within her, made thel 1escent well enough, as on her trial rips, but was unable to fasten the explosive magazine to the t*EsagIetsss gel. The intrepid captain tried forl ,Wo whole hours, and then gave it up. En making his way to the shore he IeaFed: he " as discovered and released he torpedo he carried. It exr1l0ded l5 tt some distance from the subrnarine Ind threw out a column of water many feet in the air The urlusu al spectacle and the dread of the unseen Id danger under water. caused the Brf- , -ish fleet to weigh anchor and drop town the bay ens masse. sweeping their bottoms with chains as the + old dispatches had it, to ward off ls 8 said to have congratuIated Lee most k warmly on his daring
 portion of the .sTurtle' which s alleged tp have gone through the ll .aid in New York haibor, is in the col ection Of the Eonnect1cut Historical society in the Wordsworth Atheneurn