David Bushnell, a Westbrook, Connecticut, native credited…
1777 CE
David Bushnell, a Westbrook, Connecticut, native credited with creating the first submarine ever used in combat, while studying at Yale University in 1775, proving that gunpowder explodes under water; he also made the first time bomb.
He had combined his ideas in an attempt to attack British ships which were blockading New York Harbor in the summer of 1776 by boring through their hulls and implanting time bombs, but had failed every time due to a metal lining in the ships hull meant to protect against parasites in their previous station, the Caribbean.
Bushnell then created the Turtle, so called because of its look in the water.
His idea of using water as ballast for submerging and raising his submarine is still in use today, as is the screw propeller, which is first used in the Turtle.
The Turtle eventually sinks when it is being smuggled away from the British aboard a sloop, and a British frigate spots the sloop and sinks it.
Bushnell also comes up with mine barrage in 1777.
In this year, he attempts to use a floating mine to blow up the HMS Cerberus in Niantic Bay; the mine strikes a small boat near the Cerberus and detonates, destroying the vessel, but not the intended target.