Late at night on this day 250 years ago in New York Harbor, Sgt. Ezra Lee of Connecticut piloted the submarine Turtle in an unsuccessful attempt to attach explosives to the HMS Eagle in the first instance of the use of a submarine in combat anywhere in the world. Inventors David Bushnell and Isaac Doolittle, both also from Connecticut, had designed and built the Turtle but also invented multiple other mechanisms as part of this operation that would later revolutionize naval warfare, including both two-propeller and screw propulsion systems, navigational instruments, brass foot-operated water-ballast and forcing pumps, a depth gauge and compass, a brass crown hatch, hand-operated propeller crank and foot-driven treadle with flywheel, an auger to drill into ship’s hull to attach exploding device, the clockwork for a detonator “time bomb,” and a method for igniting gunpowder underwater.

Sgt. Lee only had 30 minutes of air to remain submerged in the Turtle which gave him insufficient time for the augur to penetrate the hull of the Eagle before he abandoned the attempt and had to surface. In the early hours of September 7 Lee pedaled furiously to make it back to the American battery on Manhattan and jettisoned and triggered his explosive device while making his escape. Although unsuccessful in sinking the Eagle as planned, the explosion frightened the British into withdrawing their fleet lower in New York Harbor away from Manhattan, and thus precluded the British from intercepting American boats that began withdrawing sick and wounded troops and supplies from Manhattan over the next few days.

At age 55 and in poor health, Isaac Doolittle did not serve in the Continental Army, but he did serve on the New Haven Committee of Safety for the remainder of the War. David Bushnell managed two more unsuccessful attacks on British warships by the Turtle before it was sunk by the British Navy on board its tender vessel. Bushnell then turned to designing floating mines (then called “torpedoes”) for the Continental Army. Bushnell would go on to be appointed to the rank of captain-lieutenant in command of the “Corps of Sappers and Miners” (combat engineers) of the Continental Army and serve through Yorktown. Sgt. Lee would soon be commissioned as an officer in the Continental Army and would also serve for the remainder of the War fighting at Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth and being promoted to the rank of 1st lieutenant and serving as the regimental quartermaster and paymaster of the 1st Connecticut Regiment until 1782.

Sources: “The Fight for New York,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon (Fall 2026 at p.20; https://www.military.com/history/sgt-ezra-lee.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Lee; https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/the-turtle-infernal-vessel-became-the-first-submarine-used-in-war/; https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/george-washingtons-submarine-connecticut-men-made/