Bushnell’s Turtle

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  David Bushnell from Westbrook, Connecticut was a Yale graduate interested in creating an explosive weapon to use against the British during their occupation of New York Harbor during the Revolutionary War. Bushnell found local artisans who helped him construct an underwater vessel that could secretly transport a “bomb” to an unsuspecting British warship. Known as  "The Turtle” for its appearance, In a detailed 1787 letter to Thomas Jefferson,Bushnell described it as:

“The external shape of the sub-marine vessel bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size, joined together; the place of entrance into the vessel being represented by the opening made by the swell of the shells, at the head of the animal.”

 In a 1785 letter to Thomas Jefferson, George Washington wrote, “Bushnell is a man of great mechanical powers, fertile in inventions and master of execution … I then thought, and still think, that it was an effort of genius”.

 

Bushnell and fellow Yale University intellectual, Phineas Pratt, had developed an underwater bomb with a time delayed flintlock detonator. The one-man, hand-propelled submarine was then designed in order to transport the bomb to the enemy vessel.

The Turtle’s first contact with the British occurred in September of 1776. The plan was to approach the HMS Eagle, attach a bomb to its underside with the assistance of boring tools, and then float away in time for the explosive to sink the British warship.  Bushnell could not pilot the mission due to health issues so  a volunteers Sergeant Ezra Lee filled in.    But, there were a number of issues which effected the attack.  The vessel only had enough air to be submerged for 30 minutes and struggled against the tide. Lee's failure to attach the bomb were probably due to a combination of stress, the cooper sheeting of the Eagles hull and carbon-monoxide poisoning.  Lee ended the mission by floating away from the ship and letting the mine explode downriver, where it failed to harm either himself or the HMS Eagle. The other two attempts undertaken by the Turtle are not as well documented.  

What was the fate of the Turtle?  The American sloop transporting it was sunk by British at the Battle of Fort Lee. The Turtle was salvaged but was not able to be repaired and used again.  One source suggested seeing parts of it in a Connecticut barn in 1800

There have been a number of Turtle recreations in modern time; these include:

Replica at Connecticut River Museum.

Joseph Leary and Fred Frese co-founded a recreation Turtle project in 1976 to celebrate the United States Bicentennial. The vessel was christened by Connecticut’s then-Governor Ella Gasso and was tested in the Connecticut River. Today, it is owned by the Connecticut River Museum in Essex.

Replica in the water underway.

Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio were aided by the U.S. Naval Academy in authentically recreating the process by which the vessel was built in the Revolutionary era. This replica can be found in the International Spy Museum lobby in Washington, D.C.

Lastly, In August of 2007, three men were stopped by the police while piloting a Turtle replica near the RMS Queen Mary 2 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The New York Times noted the vessel “resembled something out of Jules Verne by way of Huck Finn....’”

If interested in reading more about this fascinating submarine I highly recommend the following book.

Manstan, Roy R. And Frese, Frederic J.  The Turtle: David Bushnell's Revolutionary Vessel.

Ambush at Black Rock Cross

 

At our clubs January game night Mark Decoteau (front and center in the picture smiling at the camera)  put on his his  "Ambush at Black Rock Cross" game using the rules  Pikeman's Lament.     He is planning on putting this on at the Mayhem convention later this year and wanted to test it out.  This is one of the nice advantages of belonging to a club.  You get try out rules you might never use or periods you don't have figures for and probably won't ever. While this us a period I know next to nothing about I tried it and had a wonderful time.  In fact I was enjoying myself so much I neglected to take any pictures!  Fortunately Ed did and I will borrow his from his great blog. (   https://edmwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com/2024/02/january-game-night.html)    Thank you Ed!  Please note your humble blogger in his green vest too busy playing to notice anything around him.

The game was Set during the English Civil War period up by the Scottish boarder.  A royalist wagon of gold is headed to a castle with a small escort.  Mounted Scott horse and a war band of Highlanders are set to ambush it while Royalist cavalry ride to the rescue.  

As I mentioned I know little about the period and this was the first time playing the rules.  Mark was an outstanding game master and kept things running smoothly as well as giving historical the bits about the various troop types and history.  Once home after the game I raced to my library to read up in the period.  The rules were great fun and I plan to pick up a set as I know I will be playing them again.  

Update from the AmazingMr Ed:

 For an Eastern Renaissance version of this game (from which it was derived), you might want to check out the July 24 2022 post on my blog:

https://edmwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com/2022/07/convoy-escort-pikemans-lament-game.html

  

A blog reccommendation

 

  If you have not discovered it yet please drop over to my friend Eric's  new blog, "Brown Spread and Yellow Fruit."  Eric is a great gamer who posts imaginative and very entertaining battle reports.  He is extremely enthusiastic and a great fellow.   Looks like a great start and much more to follow.

 As Hal Thingum used to say, highly recommended!

brownspreadandyellowfruit.blogspot.com

American Revolution Map Books

 

  In creating our miniature table top battles miniature war gamers need good maps.  How else to create our table top battlefields.  In addition they are important in learning about a battle and if fortunate  enough to actually visit the site orientated ourselves.  So it is with great news that there are two new books out on maps of battles of the American Revolution.  Both are worth your time, both include numerous battles but are very different.  This includes not on my the map but also text.

Battle Maps of the American Revolution.

The American Battlefield Trust is the premier battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Over the last thirty years the American Battlefield Trust has preserved more than 54,000 acres of battlefield land across 145 battlefields, in twenty-four states.  On its webpages tge Trust has hundreds of maps of both  major and minor battles. Many of these maps have been collected here in this book.  The maps give troops movements and a superior idea of the topography.  Unfortunately there is little to no text description of the battle.

Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns American Revolution.

I have been looking forward to this book for some time now.  I have a couple books by the author David Bonk and great respect and enjoy his work. 

The Atlas of Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution provides a comprehensive visual summary of the campaigns, major battles and minor skirmishes of the war. The atlas includes over 120 maps created using maps from the Revolution, including the large collection from the US Library of Congress and enhanced with more accurate topographic mapping from the 1880s. The maps also show troop dispositions and movements taken from a wide range of written sources to provide the most accurate representation of the battles and campaigns. The Atlas will be a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in the American Revolution, including wargamers, reenactors, and students of the conflict.

 The Atlas follows the war from Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and then major engagements at  Long Island, Trenton, Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, Savannah, Guilford Courthouse and Yorktown. Thre are also A collection of minor but very interesting actions, at Harlem Heights, White Plains, Short Hills, Barren Hill, Stony Point, Hobkirk’s Hill and Green Springs. All of which cry out the be fought on your table top.  Finally the Atlas includes those important  engagements in the West Indies, Gibraltar, and India.  Each engagement includes a well research account of the action as well as good orders of battle. The maps are a new style color coded system.  Personally I prefer the older topographic style maps but these work.

Both books are well done and highly recommended.  The Atlas is a hardback printed book so naturally is much more expensive.  That said I like the maps better in the other book.  So you pays your money and takes your chances.  Personally I recommend both for your library.

My Return

 

  Hello all, yes I am back.  The last couple months have been too busy with personal and health issues so I had no time for blogging or fun hobby type activity.  I have also been adjusting to life retired and what to do with myself.  The good news is my health is better and I am finally finding my mojo again.  So I should be posting regularly once again.  Thank you for those who dropped me notes and those who continued to visit here.  I appreciate it greatly!

Fort Devens Museum Game Day

  I Attended the annual Miniature Gaming Day at the First Devens Museum near where I live.  Its a great day out and a chance to meet up with local gamers for a nice afternoon of gaming.  In addition the museum itself is open and I great fun and interesting to go through.  The museum chronicles the history if the base from its time as Camo Devens in 1917 up until its closure in 1996.  The museum reminds me of the British regimental museums I visited on my trio to Great British in 1983 filled with interesting items. I highly recommend attending this event  if you live in the New England area.

What games were put on?  Here the are!

 

Rules: Musket and Tomahawks

"Beausolie and his band of Acadian rebels are out for a night on the town in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The sailors from HMS Slaughter are in town as well. The Acadians and their first people’s allies are bringing their torches and the settlers are praying the garrison on hill are watchful this evening. Come to the party."

Rules : Naval Theater

"HMS Ajax, HMS Achilles and HMS Exeter take Graf Spee in the battle of the River Plate in the early months of World War II"

Rules: Damned Human Race (Victorian Science Fiction)

 "Death on the Martian Plains! The plains of Mars are slowly but surely becoming inhabited, but as homesteaders rush to occupy the “free” land they run the risk of being set upon by hostiles and bandits!"

Rules: The “Carriere Variant” of Black Seas

The Leeward Line: The Battle of Trafalgar Admiral Collingwood’s van attempts to break the French and Spanish line and Make England safe from invasion.

Rules: Bolt Action

" Kasserine. Can the untested Americans defeat the veteran Afrika Korps? This desperate battle between the untested US army and the battle-hardened Afrika Korps is one of the climactic moments of the Desert War. US players must mitigate the effects of poor morale and make the best use of their extensive support options, while German and Italian players must use their aggression and experience to outmaneuver the allies."

Rules: Based on Command & Colors Napoleonics

 Command & Colors: Seven Years War. Extended time play will be used; units will be doubled in casualties taken.

 Since I do not usually play in naval games I signed up for both the Black Seas Trafalgar and the Graf Spee games and had a wonderful day.  Both game masters explained the rules and helped guide us through them which is great help in a naval game.  Of course mire details on both in my next post.

Battle of Flat Bottom Sound

 

 At game night I played in George's pre dreadnaught game set during the Spanish American war.  It was a great looking game with beautiful ships and good friends.  The rules were very fun and simple and we played the game twice that evening.  In the past were have used these rules for American Civil war so they are very flexible.

  We used the rules for naval games by Bob Cordery.  These are a fun and very fast set of rules.  They are played on a hex type mat and simplify a lot of the aspects of naval warfare.  Ships move two or three hexes.  First move you have to go forward Into tbe next hex then you can turn or go forward again.   

  Guns are divided into either primary (can fire forward or to each side)  or secondary (fire to each side) types.  You get a certain number of dice per gun type.  When you fire you subtract the number of hexes to the target from your dice and throw the remainder looking for 6's which cause two hits on the target or 4's or 5's which cause one hit on the target.  So a modern first class battleship has nine dice for its primary guns and five dice for its secondary guns. Other ships with smaller guns get less dice.   In the picture above the Spanish ship can fire its primary gun at the American ship.  Since its six hexes away you subtract suffice from the nine and you get three dice to see if you hit anything.  Each ship gets so many hit points then it sinks.  Easy and simple and it works.

   The game had two Spanish ships attempting to escape Santiago harbour.  One ship had a shipment of gold which had to make it back to Spain.  Off shore was a new Spanish battleship waiting to help.  Once the treasure ship made it off the table both remaining Spanish ships had to return to Santiago Harbour.   The American navy had two older battleships and a protected cruiser.  They had to sink the enemy.

  In the first game we were learning the rules.  The Spanish ships raced towards the edge of the table and the American ships chased them.  unfortunately the Spanish got a serious head start so they could not get caught.  The Americans put their weakest but fastest ship in the lead and it got itself pummeled.  

  In the second game we set up the Americans closer.  As the two Spanish ships left the harbour one ship turned to engage the Americans While the other tried to make its escape.   The Americans turned in the first ship and after a gallant fight sent it to the bottom.  The treasure ship made its way towards to the edge of the table as quickly as it could.  It took a number if hits from long range fire.

  At this point the Spanish battleship arrived.  In a gunnery duel it sent the USS Texas to the bottom.  The remaining American ships which had been damaged earlier sailed away to fight another day.

All in all a very happy evening with a fun game and very good friends.