Turtle was the American submarine used in the first submarine attack in 1776.
Designed by David Bushnell, Turtle was a small, one-person wooden submersible built to attack British warships in New York Harbor. On September 6, 1776, its operator, Sergeant Ezra Lee, attempted to attach an explosive charge to HMS Eagle, a British ship of the line. Lee could not drill through the ship’s copper sheathing, so the attack failed.
Although Turtle did not damage the British vessel, the attempt is widely regarded as the first use of a submarine in combat. The craft was powered by a hand-operated propeller and controlled by the operator inside its cramped shell. It was designed to approach underwater, attach a timed explosive, and escape before detonation.
Turtle is sometimes confused with H. L. Hunley, a later Confederate submarine that attacked USS Housatonic in 1864. Those vessels belonged to different wars and centuries. The 1776 experiment illustrates how the Revolutionary era combined conventional battles with inventive military technology.