Griswold on Submarine Explosion. 95 
ing their absence, the enemy had got possession of Long- 
{sland and Governor’s-Island. ‘They therefore had the 
machine conveyed by land across from New-Rochelle to 
the Hudson river, and afterwards arrived with it at New- 
York. 
The British fleet now lay to the north of Staten-Island, 
with a large number of transports, and were the objects 
against which this new mode of warfare was destined to act; 
the first serene night was fixed upon for the execution of 
this perilous enterprise, and sergeant Lee was to be the 
engineer. After the lapse of a few days, a favorable night 
arrived, and at 11 o’clock, a party embarked in two or three 
whale boats, with Bushnell’s machine in tow. They rowed 
down as near the fleet as they dared, when sergeant Lee 
entered the machine, was cast off, and the boats returned. 
Lee now found the ebb tide rather too strong, and before 
he was aware, had drifted him down past the men of war; ; 
he however immediately got the machine about, and by 
hard labour at the crank for the space of five glasses by 
the ship’s bells, or two anda half hours, he arrived under 
the stern of one of the ships at about slack water. Day 
had now dawned, and by the light of the moon he could 
see the people on board, and heard their conversation. 
This was the moment for diving: he accordingly closed up 
overhead, let in water, and descended under the ship’s bot- 
tom. 
He now applied the screw, and did all in his power to 
make it enter, but owing probably in part to the ship’s cop- 
per, and the want of an adequate pressure, to enable the 
screw to get a hold upon the bottom, his attempts all failed; 
at each essay the machine rebounded from the ship’s bot- 
tom, not having sufficient power to resist the impulse thus 
given to it.* 
He next paddled along to a different part of her bottom, 
but in this manceuvre he made a deviation, and instantly 
arose to the water’s surface on the east side of the ship, 
exposed to the increasing light of the morning, and in im- 
*It yet remains a problem, whether the difficulty here spoken of will 
ever be fully obviated. Mr. Fulton’s torpedoes were never fairly brought 
to the test of experiment, though he and his friends entertained perfect 
confidence that they would not “he found defective in any of their pers 
tions 
