Sunday, June 13, 2010

Replica of David Bushnell's Turtle

In 1776, during the American Revolution, a Connecticut Yankee by the name of David Bushnell had a daring idea to break the British blockade of New York harbor: he would build a one-man submarine and somehow attach a bomb to the underside of the British ships and blow them up.

Intrigued, Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio led the effort to re-create the building of a replica of this wooden submarine, nicknamed the "Turtle," using only the tools and technologies of the day. With help from students and professional craftsmen plus the submarine expertise of the United States Naval Academy, they built and tested and ultimately proved the seemingly radical idea of Bushnell's.

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1 comment:

  1. This is the third reproduction of the turtle I am aware of. The Connecticut River museum has one.
    http://www.ctrivermuseum.org/content/collections.aspx?sid=2_1 And the is one in the Submarine Museum in Groton Ct. although I don't think that one was meant to be functional

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