David Bushnell

Following the death of his father circa 1769, he sold his half interest in the family Westbrook farm to his brother Ezra and entered Yale College in 1771 at the relatively old age of 31.

Working with the wealthy New Haven inventor, clock-maker, and brass foundry-man Isaac Doolittle, he also co-developed the first mechanically triggered time bomb as well as one of the first ship's propeller.

On September 7, 1776, Turtle, manned by Sergeant Ezra Lee of the Continental Army, was used to attack the British 64-gun ship of the line HMS Eagle which was moored in New York Harbor.

In 1778, General Washington proposed the formation of a new military unit to be known as the "Corps of Sappers and Miners" (i.e. combat engineers) and in the summer of the next year it was organized.

He then became an original member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, an organization formed by officers who were veterans of the Continental Army and Navy.

A full sized model of David Bushnell's Turtle is on display at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

Bushnell served during World War I and was renamed USS Sumner in 1940 and was present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Bushnell served during World War II and later was the flagship of Submarine Squadron 12 in Key West, Florida from 1952 until she was decommissioned in 1970.