Age of the Turtle

In 1775, David Bushnell builds a very early, if not the first, battle submarine. In OTL, the submarine was unsuccesful because of reinforced steel plates in the British ships. But what if Ezra Lee, the Turtles captain, had chosen a lucky weak spot? The war submarine would prevail as a largely used weapon. Naval history would be drastically different.

Rise of the Turtle
September 7, 1776: Ezra Lee sweated in the damp, hot chamber of the machine. Through his porthole, Ezra could see the bulk of the massive warship. His tiny contraption, The Turtle, seemed to be no threat to the enourmous ship Eagle. With the light of his foxfire fungus, Ezra spotted a good spot to lay explosives on the warships hull. After twenty five minutes drilling a hole, the bomb was placed. At fastest speed, Ezra and his submarine sped away from the soon-to-be-gone warship. The entire device shuddered as the Eagle's hull blew out and the ship fell in on itself. Somehow, the Turtle sustained this without leaking. When the soldiers pulled Ezra out of his submarine, he told them of the weapons efficiency. One complaint to the designer was the tedious and tiring hand crank.

October 3: Benjamin Franklin and David Bushnell get together to design a better war sub. The new design includes a medium-sized ram and a pedal-powered propeller. Three more Turtle Mk 2s are built by December. A prototype for Mk 3 is made. It uses a steam engine. Washington is impressed, and declares that a new age of warfare has begun.

Effects of the Turtle
By 1778, a fleet of ten Turtles devastates British sea lanes. Many, many troop-carrying ships have been lost. The Continental Army has control of most of the 13 colonies. A renewed invasion of Canada begins. Many French still in the area help expel the british.