The Silent Service Contes of Age The Year 2000 Marks the 1 OOth Anniversary of the US Submarine Service, Which Surprised the World in the Century Just Ended by Jerry Roberts The submarine, developed to help the weakerpowerfight a stronger navy, came dangerously near defeating the BritishAmerican alliance ofboth World Wars I and IL by cutting the vital North Atlantic supply line. But the US, which did most to develop the submarine, made overwhelmingly successful use of this weapon to roll back Japanese aggression in World War II in the Pacific. Here Jerry Roberts, vice president of exhibits for the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, tells how American inventiveness and resolution brought this history-changing weapon into being, based on the lntrepid's centennial submarine exhibit, "Prepare to Dive. " The Turtle pushed the technology ofits day to the limits of Yankee ingenuity, but failed to sink any British ships in the American Revolution. This sketch is based on Bushnell's written description of his craft. (US Navy)
The Hunl ey, namedfor her primary backer, became the first submarine to sink a ship in time of war, as a Confederate Navy ship in the Civil War. Hunley and her crew were lost on the way back from her exploit. (US Navy)
Holland's early sketch for a submarine shows a human-powered, one-man boat. Breakthrough in his designs came when he began to fashion boats using the newly developed internal combustion engine. (US Navy)
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he pioneering yea rs of American submarine development extended from the Revolutionary War submersible Turtle of 1776 to the birth of the US Navy's submarine service in 1900. American patriot David Bushnell, an engineering student recently graduated from Yale University, designed and built the first submarine to be used in war. He developed the Turtle simply as a delivery system for his underwater bomb. His "infernal " consisted of a waterproof cask filled with gunpowder triggered by an internal clockwork and flintlock. The T urtlewas made ofwood and shaped like a flattened egg with a brass hatch on top and lead ballast on the bottom. It submerged when water was let into the bilge by a valve and resurfaced when the water was expelled by a hand pump. The sub was operated by one man who used a rudder to steer and two manually operated propellers to maneuver the boat. On the night of 6 September 1776, the Turtle, manned by Ezra Lee, a sergeant in the Colonial Army, was launched from Manhattan's so uthern tip and set out to attack the British warships blockading the harbor. Lee selected a vessel believed to be the squadron's flagship, HMS Eagle. Although he was able to dive and get beneath the ship, he could not get the auger to screw into the wood. Unable to keep his vessel in position, he popped to the surface, where he was spotted by sentries. Lee and rhe Turtle escaped to try again another day.
Lee unsuccessfully attacked British ships in the Hudson River on at least two other occasions. On 6 October the British sank the sloop that was carrying the Turtle, but the submarine was recovered. No more attempts against the British were made, however, so the Turtle goes down in history as the first submarine used in war, and the first to "almost" sink a ship . During the Civil War, 88 years later, the Confederate Navy's CSS Hunley became the first sub actually to sink an enemy warship. The 39-foor human-powered sub, built in 1863, carried a spar torpedo designed to explode after being rammed into the side of an enemy ship. Twice during trials the submarine sank; both crews were lost, one of which included one of the sub's creators, H. L. Hunley. On 17 February 1864, a third crew under the command of Lt. George Dixon attacked the Union warsh ip USS Housatonic, part of a squadron blockading Charleston, South Carolina. Hunley succeeded , but did not return from its mission. It was found on the bottom a few miles away in 1995, and was at last raised in August 2000. The man most responsible for the modern submarine, John P. Holland, was born in Ireland in 1841. As a yo ung schoolteacher he became interested in the major scientific challenges of his time, including the problems of flight and underwater exploration. But Holland did nor have the resources to do more rh;i,n make his own design concept sketches . Immigrating to rhe United States in 1873, he taught school in Paterson, New Jersey, where he co ntinued his interest in submarines. In 1875 he submitted one of his designs to the Navy Department; the Navy was nor interested. However, the fo ll owing year, John's brother Michael introduced him to members of the Fenian Brotherhood, an organization of expatriate Irish-Americans who were working to force England out of their homeland. Realizing that only something as revolutionary as a submarine would allow them to attack Britain 's Royal Navy, they decided to use money from their "skirmishing fund" to finance John Holland's experiments. T he Holland One was launched in the Passaic River on 22 May 1878.
SEA HISTORY 95, WINTER 2000-01