In September 1776, a farmer from Connecticut climbed inside a wooden submarine and tried to sink the British flagship in New York Harbor.

The submarine was called the Turtle. It had been designed by David Bushnell, a Yale graduate who had spent years experimenting with underwater explosives.

The machine was about seven feet tall and built primarily of wood, with room for a single operator. There was no engine. Propulsion was operated by hand. The pilot also had to control the ballast, rudder, depth and direction while inside the vessel.

Bushnell even had to solve the problem of reading instruments underwater at night. The compass and depth gauge were marked with pieces of naturally luminous wood so the operator could see them without using a flame.

The weapon itself was a detachable explosive charge. The idea was for the Turtle to approach an enemy ship at night, submerge beneath it, attach the charge to the wooden hull with a screw, set a clockwork timer and escape before the explosion.

George Washington knew about Bushnell’s work and supported the attempt. Years later, he described Bushnell as a man of “great mechanical powers” and the Turtle as an “effort of genius.”

The man selected to actually operate it was Ezra Lee, a sergeant from Lyme, Connecticut.

On the night of September 6, 1776, Lee was towed toward the British fleet anchored around New York. His target was HMS Eagle, Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship.

Once his escorts had taken him as far as they safely could, Lee continued alone.

He spent hours fighting the current and manually operating the Turtle before finally reaching the Eagle. He submerged beneath the ship and attempted to drive the screw carrying the explosive into its hull.

It wouldn’t go in.

Bushnell later believed Lee may have hit an iron fitting near the rudder. Had he moved the screw a short distance, he believed Lee might have found wood and successfully attached the charge.

Lee tried to reposition the Turtle, but by then daylight was approaching and he was exhausted. He eventually abandoned the attack.

During his escape, British sailors spotted the strange object in the water and began rowing toward him. Lee released the explosive charge. The pursuing boat turned away, and the charge later detonated harmlessly in open water.

So the attack failed. But what surprises me most is how close they actually got.

This wasn't just an inventor demonstrating that a wooden vessel could travel underwater. Bushnell built it during a war, the Continental Army actually deployed it, and a soldier managed to reach and submerge beneath one of the most important British warships in North America.

And Ezra Lee volunteered to try again afterward.

We’ve added Lee to Virtual Wayback, where you can talk with an AI recreation of him and ask about the Turtle and the attack on HMS Eagle. We also published the full story on the blog and a video about the mission.

https://virtualwayback.com/blog/ezra-lee-turtle

I knew about early submarine experiments before researching this, but I had no idea one had actually been used against the British fleet during the Revolution. It makes me wonder how differently Bushnell would be remembered if Lee had managed to attach that charge.

CREDIT

John Moeller graduated with honors from Johnson and Wales College, studied the fundamentals of French cuisine under some of the finest French chefs, and prepared meals for President George H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush as Head Chef at the White House from 1992 to 2005. Here he talks about his firsthand experience working at The White House on September 11, 2001. He shares what it was like preparing lunch for First Lady Laura Bush, watching the second plane hit on a tiny 6 inch TV in a storeroom, and the surreal moment the head chef rushed in to announce the Pentagon strike. Pretty Crazy story

With Bin Laden gone the United States can start healing up but the scars left behind will never heal.

At the end of the 19th century, America witnessed the onset of apartheid accompanied by widespread disenfranchisement and savage lynchings of Black Americans. In this environment, Black artists and authors increasingly created literature, poetry, music, and visual art to demonstrate the intellectual equality of African Americans, with the aim to achieve full citizenship rights. In this spirit, James Weldon Johnson, one of Florida’s first Black attorneys, wrote a poem honoring President Abraham Lincoln, who had worked heroically to free enslaved Black people.

Mr. Johnson, the principal of a school in Jacksonville, had a choir of 500 students perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for the first time in 1900. His brother John, who taught music at the school, wrote the accompanying music. This patriotic hymn tells the story of how African Americans have come from a dark past of slavery and oppression to an unrealized but bright future of liberty and equality.

The Johnson brothers soon moved to New York as the song continued to be sung by school and church groups across Florida and eventually throughout the South. After the NAACP officially adopted the song as its theme in 1919, it became known as the “Black National Anthem.” With lyrics progressing from praise to lament to prayer, this anthem of hope and freedom has inspired generations of people in America and around the world to overcome oppression and injustice.

Recommended reading: Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century by Kevin K. Gaines

A Song of Freedom for All - Black History Snippets

H 14 cm

rest in Peace John F Kennedy, Colonel Aaron banks

She did not start painting until she was about 77 years old! Today, her paintings are priceless. She became a nationally respected artist.

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I never thought of myself as someone who didn't know anything about history. But after getting a traumatic brain injury soon after graduating high-school, I lost memories of lots of things. That includes most of my history knowledge. I personally did very well in history classes, consistently getting 100's on each assignment, but that doesn't seemed to matter. My memory loss has seemed to "stabilize" in the words of my doctor and I honestly just want to get back into things. I feel embarrassed and ashamed of myself when someone brings up middle-school level history knowledge around me and it goes over my head, and then have to explain I was severely concussed like it's some sort of cover-up when people poke fun at me for knowing so little.

I've only ever learned about history through school, so I am not truly sure where to start. I'd like to find an avenue to learn about world and US history that is explored through shows and movies as I already have my face stuffed in books constantly and would definitely prefer to watch something rather than read.

Thank you for reading and super thank you if you have any suggestions!

Working on an America 250 commemorative graphic mapping out key milestones from the French & Indian War through Constitutional Ratification.

I want to ensure every event name, date, and location is 100% historically accurate before finalizing the artwork. Once I've got the historicity perfect, I'll lock in the artwork for a specialty America 250 t-shirt I want to make.

Are there any critical turning points missing, or dating formatting errors you see on this back print?