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**SOLD**
11” L x 18” H x 6” W
In 1775 an Irishman--David Bushnell--began designing and building a one-man craft: it was the first of its kind—a submarine.
On the night of July 7, 1776 Bushnell put his submarine to work in New York harbor against British Admiral Howe's flagship, HMS Eagle. Armed with one gunpowder torpedo—a big barrel of gunpowder--, which could be attached to the hull of a ship using a drill-- the Turtle maneuvered up to the Eagle undetected. The gunpowder torpedo did not attach correctly and only disturbed the Eagle. but the fearful British ships left New York harbor.
The craft, nicknamed the American Turtle, seems a classic of “form follows function,” combining a disparate catalog of parts for the first time: hatch, woodscrew, rudder, drop keel, ballast tank, pump, tiller, forward prop, seat, hand crank, vertical prop, woodscrew, ventilator, and mine.
How was the interior lit when the hatch was closed? Since a candle would consume needed oxygen, Bushnell took Benjamin Franklin’s advice: he used bioluminescent foxfire. That is, Armillaria, or the Honey Mushroom.
After eventually taking command of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Bushnell went on to study medicine and became a country doctor in Georgia.
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