David Bushnell and His Turtle: The Story of America's First Submarine

Nearly 100 years before the Confederate submarine The Hunley sank a Union blockade ship near Charleston, David Bushnell was working in a Connecticut barn developing an underwater time bomb and the first combat submarine. June Swanson's "David Bushnell and His Turtle" is the story of Bushnell's pioneering ingenuity, which led to the first submarine attack in history. On Sept. 6, 1776, Bushnell's Turtle attempted to attach a bomb to the HMS Eagle, a British ship blockading New York Harbor. Though the attack was unsuccessful, Bushnell's bombs worried the British enough that they moved their ships farther from shore - thus weakening the blockade. Praised by famous founders from George Washington to Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, the Yale-educated Bushnell nonetheless felt like a failure for not successfully selling his innovative submarine design. He later changed his name to Bush, moved to rural Georgia and lived out the remainder of his 82 years as an educator and medical doctor. Writing on an elementary school level, Swanson does an excellent job encapsulating Bushnell's story and securing his largely unsung place in American history. Her book should be required reading for schoolchildren - and their parents - who can never learn enough about the "minor" characters who helped form our nation.