During the American Revolution, an inventor named David Bushnell came up with a crazy idea. In order to use his newly invented underwater explosives, he designed a submersible, which he named "The Turtle". While the Turtle was never a success in battle, it truly was a work of genius. It was the first of its kind and pioneered concepts that are still used today, notably using water as ballast.
Lee's account of the mission continues past where the video left off, Once he is unable to penetrate the Hull of the ship he tries another spot but accidentally surfaced. There he could hear British troops on deck, and with morning on the horizon, Lee opted to retreat from the mission so that he and the turtle would not be discovered. But The Bitts do see him and pursue him. In order to evade capture, Lee released the explosive, which according to him set off "a tremendous explosion, throwing up large bodies of water to an immense height. "
Another point the video did not touch on is that, the Turtle could only submerge for about 30 minutes before needing to replenish air, meaning most of the time the vessel was surfaced. When Lee was rowing in place he would not have been submerged but bobbing up and down on the surface like a rogue buoy.
I want to point out that the letter shown at the end of the video is a picture of the Actual letter George Washington sent to Thomas Jefferson.
As always there is quite a bit more to the story. If you want to find out more here are some great web sources I found:
