Turtle ( submersible ) The Turtle ( also called the American Turtle ) was the world ' s first submersible with a documented record of use in combat . It was built in Old Saybrook , Connecticut in 1775 by American Patriot David Bushnell as a means of attaching explosive charges to ships in a harbor . Bushnell designed it for use against British Royal Navy vessels occupying North American harbors during the American Revolutionary War . Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull recommended the invention to George Washington ; although the commander - in - chief had doubts , he provided funds and support for the development and testing of the machine . Several attempts were made using the " Turtle " to affix explosives to the undersides of British warships in New York Harbor in 1776 . All failed , and her transport ship was sunk later that year by the British with the submarine aboard . Bushnell claimed eventually to have recovered the machine , but its final fate is unknown . Modern functional replicas of the " Turtle " have been constructed ; the Connecticut River Museum , the Submarine Force Library and Museum , and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum have them on display . Development . In the early 1770s , Yale College freshman David Bushnell began experimenting with underwater explosives . By 1775 , with tensions on the rise between the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain , Bushnell had practically perfected these explosives . That year he also began work near Old Saybrook , Connecticut on a small manned submersible craft that would be capable of affixing such a charge to the hull of a ship . The charge would then be detonated by a clockwork mechanism that released a musket firing mechanism , probably a flintlock , that had been adapted for the purpose . According to Dr . Benjamin Gale , a doctor who taught at Yale , the firing mechanism and other mechanical parts of the submarine were manufactured by a New Haven clockmaker named Isaac Doolittle . Named for its shape , " Turtle " resembled a large clam as much as a turtle ; it was about long ( according to the original specifications ) , tall , and about wide , and consisted of two wooden shells covered with tar and reinforced with steel bands . It dived by allowing water into a bilge tank at the bottom of the vessel and ascended by pushing water out through a hand pump . It was propelled vertically and horizontally by hand - cranked propellers . It also had of lead aboard , which could be released in a moment to increase buoyancy . Manned and operated by one person , the vessel contained enough air for about thirty minutes and had a speed in calm water of about three miles per hour ( 5 km / h ) . Six small pieces of thick glass in the top of the submarine provided natural light . Illumination while submerged was provided by a piece of cork that gave off a fungus - powered bioluminescent foxfire . During trials in November 1775 , Bushnell discovered that this illumination failed when the temperature dropped too low . Although repeated requests were made to Benjamin Franklin for possible alternatives , none were forthcoming , and the " Turtle " was sidelined for the winter . Bushnell ' s basic design included some elements present in earlier experimental submersibles . The method of raising and lowering the vessel was similar to that developed by Nathaniel Simons in 1729 , and the gaskets used to make watertight connections around the connections between the internal and external controls also may have come from Simons , who constructed a submersible based on a 17th - century Italian design by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli . Preparation for use . Bushnell ' s work began to receive more attention in August 1775 , when Franklin was informed of it . Despite Bushnell ' s insistence on secrecy surrounding his work , news of it quickly made its way to the British , abetted by a Loyalist spy working for New York Congressman James Duane . On November 16 , 1775 , a coded message to William Tryon , the last royal governor of the Province of New York , brought Bushnell ' s work to British attention . The details of the report were highly inaccurate , implying that the " Turtle " was nearly ready to be deployed in Boston harbor against the fleet that was part of the British siege effort there . In fact Bushnell and his brother Ezra were still testing the machine in the Connecticut River . In the spring of 1776 , after the British withdrew from Boston , Bushnell offered the submarine to General George Washington for use in the defense of New York City . Washington agreed , and provided some funding to the inventor to prepare the vessel for deployment . In August 1776 Bushnell asked General Samuel Holden Parsons for volunteers to operate the " Turtle " , because his brother Ezra , who had been its operator during earlier trials , was taken ill . Three men were chosen , and the submarine was taken to Long Island Sound for training and further trials . While these trials went on , the British gained control of western Long Island in the August 27 Battle of Long Island . Since the British now controlled the harbor , the " Turtle " was transported overland from New Rochelle to the Hudson River . Attack on the " Eagle " . General Washington then authorized an expedition by the " Turtle " in the waters of New York Harbor . At 11 : 00 PM on September 6 , one of the volunteers , Sergeant Ezra Lee , took the " Turtle " out to attempt an attack on Admiral Richard Howe ' s flagship HMS " Eagle " . She was moored off what is today called Governors Island , which is due south of Manhattan . According to Lee ' s account , she was towed by rowboats as close as was felt safe to the British fleet . He then navigated for more than two hours before slack tide made it possible to reach the " Eagle " . His first attempt to attach the explosive failed because the screw struck a metal impediment . A common misconception was that Lee failed because he could not manage to bore through the copper - sheeted hull . Bushnell believed that Lee ' s failure was probably due to an iron plate connected to the ship ' s rudder hinge . When Lee attempted another spot in the hull , he was unable to stay beneath the ship , and eventually abandoned the attempt . Lee reported that British soldiers on Governors Island spotted the submarine and rowed out to investigate . He then released the charge ( which he called a " torpedo " ) , " expecting that they would seize that likewise , and thus all would be blown to atoms . " Suspicious of the drifting charge , the British retreated back to the island . Lee reported that the charge drifted into the East River , where it exploded " with tremendous violence , throwing large columns of water and pieces of wood that composed it high into the air . " It was the first recorded use of a submarine to attack a ship ; however , the only records documenting it are American . British records contain no accounts of an attack by a submarine or any reports of explosions on the night of the supposed attack on HMS " Eagle " . According to British naval historian Richard Compton - Hall , the problems of achieving neutral buoyancy would have rendered the vertical propeller useless . The route the " Turtle " would have had to take to attack HMS " Eagle " was slightly across the tidal stream which would , in all probability , have resulted in Ezra Lee becoming exhausted . In the face of these and other problems Compton - Hall suggests that the entire story was fabricated as disinformation and morale - boosting propaganda , and that if Ezra Lee did carry out an attack it was in a covered rowing boat rather than the " Turtle " . Aftermath . On October 5 , Sergeant Lee again went out in an attempt to attach the charge to a frigate anchored off Manhattan . He reported that the ship ' s watch spotted him , so he abandoned the attempt . The submarine was sunk some days later by the British as it sat on its tender vessel near Fort Lee , New Jersey . Bushnell reported salvaging the " Turtle " , but its final fate is unknown . George Washington wrote of the attempt that it was " an effort of genius " , but that " a combination of too many things was requisite " for such an attempt to succeed . In 1777 , Lee used floating mines in an attempt to destroy the British frigate " HMS Cerberus , " anchored in Niantic Bay . The explosion was said to have killed three sailors and destroyed a prize schooner anchored astern of the " Cerberus " , although it left the " Cerberus " undamaged . In 1778 Bushnell floated mines down the Delaware River in an attempt to destroy British ships off Philadelphia . The mines took longer to reach the area than expected , and there was a report that two boys investigating them were blown up . On January 5 , 1778 , one of the mines struck a British barge , killing four men and raising the alarm . The British response , in which virtually any piece of floating wood in the river became a target , was lampooned in a ballad called " The Battle of the Kegs " . Replicas . In 1976 , a replica was designed by Joseph Leary and constructed by Fred Frese as a project marking the United States Bicentennial . It was christened by Connecticut ' s governor , Ella Grasso , and later tested in the Connecticut River . This replica is owned by the Connecticut River Museum . On August 3 , 2007 three men were stopped by police while escorting and piloting a replica of the " Turtle " within of the " Queen Mary 2 " , then docked at the cruise ship terminal in Red Hook , Brooklyn . The replica was created by New York artist Philip " Duke " Riley and two residents of Rhode Island , one of whom claimed to be a descendant of David Bushnell . The Coast Guard issued Riley a citation for having an unsafe vessel , and for violating the security zone around the " Queen Mary 2 " .