商品説明

●タートルは初めて実戦で運用された潜水艇です。
●1775年、アメリカ独立戦争時に停泊中の軍艦に爆雷を装着するために開発されました。
●動力は人力で前進にはスクリューを使用、船底のタンクに水を入れることで潜行する構造でした。
●1776年にガバナース島に停泊している敵艦にタートルが使われましたが、この攻撃は失敗に終わりました。
●その後は使われること無く解体されましたが、歴史的に一つの足跡を残した潜水艇でした。

The Turtle (also called the American Turtle) was the world's first submersible with a documented record of use in combat.
In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship Eagle in New York Harbor. It was the first use of a submarine in warfare.
David Bushnell, an American inventor, began building underwater mines while a student at Yale University. Deciding that a submarine would be the best means of delivering his mines in warfare, he built an eight-foot-long wooden submersible that was christened the Turtle for its shape. Large enough to accommodate one operator, the submarine was entirely hand-powered. Lead ballast kept the craft balanced.

Donated to the Patriot cause after the outbreak of war with Britain in 1775, Ezra Lee piloted the craft unnoticed out to the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on September 7, 1776. As Lee worked to anchor a time bomb to the hull, he could see British seamen on the deck above, but they failed to notice the strange craft below the surface. Lee had almost secured the bomb when his boring tools failed to penetrate a layer of iron sheathing. He retreated, and the bomb exploded nearby, causing no harm to either the Eagle or the Turtle.

During the next week, the Turtle made several more attempts to sink British ships on the Hudson River, but each time it failed, owing to the operator’s lack of skill. Only Bushnell was really able to competently execute the submarine’s complicated functions, but because of his physical frailty he was unable to pilot the Turtle in any of its combat missions. During the Battle of Fort Lee, the Turtle was lost when the American sloop transporting it was sunk by the British.

Despite the failures of the Turtle, General George Washington gave Bushnell a commission as an Army engineer, and the drifting mines he constructed destroyed the British frigate Cereberus and wreaked havoc against other British ships. After the war, he became commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at West Point.
●パッケージサイズ/重さ : 25.2 x 15.2 x 3.9 cm / 55g

商品仕様

国

アメリカ

商品コード

MKR35-015

JANコード

4589913211285

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