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William Williams 1776 ADS about Submarine Warfare, Fantastic Item!
William Williams 1776 ADS about Submarine Warfare, Fantastic Item!
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Williams William



William Williams 1776 ADS about Submarine Warfare, Fantastic Item!  

 

This remarkable document, written by Declaration-signer William Williams, orders the payment of £60 to Deputy Governor Matthew Griswold to encourage inventor David Bushnell to carry forward his “work of great ingenuity” to attack British vessels in American harbors.

 

WILLIAM WILLIAMS, Autograph Document Signed, Pay Order to John Lawrence, February 6, 1776, Hartford, Connecticut. Also signed by Deputy Governor Matthew Griswold. 2 pp., 8.75" x 6.75"  Expected folds; small hole not affecting text; former mounts on verso.

 

Complete Transcript

To John Lawrence Esqr Treasurer

Please to pay & deliver to

His Honr Deputy Govr Griswold the sum of sixty pounds, to be by Him improved for the use of this Colony & the Public according to Instructions from this Board

By order of the Govr & Council of Safety

ye 6 of Feby AD 1776

                                                                        Wm Williams Clerk

[Endorsement:

                                                                        Hartford 29th May 1776

Recd of Treasurer Lawrence Sixty pounds Lawful money being the Contents

                                                                        Matthw Griswold

[Docketing: No 4296 / order / Honble M. Griswold Esqr / Dated 3d February 1776 £60,0;0 / Audited Septemr 1, 1777 / Plummer

 

Historical Background

In 1775, the Connecticut General Assembly met only two or three times between May and September. After the events in Lexington, Massachusetts, in April, the General Assembly decided to appoint a special committee of advisers to assist Governor Jonathan Trumbull. The result was the Council of Safety, which first met on June 7, 1775, with William Williams serving as clerk.

 

On February 2, 1776, Governor Trumbull and the Connecticut Council of Safety met, and among other business heard David Bushnell, who “gave an account of his machine contrived to blow ships &c., and was asked many questions about it &c. &c., and being retired, on consideration, voted, that we hold ourselves under obligations of secrecy about it. And his Honor the D. Governor is desired to reward him for his trouble and expence in coming here, and signifie to him that we approve of his plan and that [it will be agreeable to have him proceed to make every necessary preparation and experiment about it, with expectation of proper notice and reward.”

 

The following day, the minutes read,

“Moved by the Governor by motion to him from Gov. Griswold that some encouragement should be given to enable Mr. Bushnell to pay expences incurred in preparing his machine for the design projected &c., and to carry forward the plan &c. &c., it appearing to be a work of great ingenuity &c., and a prospect that it may be attended with success, and being undertaken merely to serve the public, and of considerable expense to labour &c., its tho’t reasonable that something should be done &c.

“Voted and ordered, That the Treasurer pay and deliver to his Honor the Deputy Governor the sum of sixty pounds, to be by him improved for the use of the Colony and public according to instructions from this Board. Order given 25 May, 1776, Delivered D. Gov. at Hartford.”

 

Bushnell’s invention was the world’s first submersible vessel actually used in combat. While at Yale College, Bushnell proved that gunpowder could be exploded under water and developed a clockwork to create a time bomb that could be attached to a ship. His individually-manned submarine, dubbed the Turtle because of its look in the water, included innovations such as using water as ballast for submerging and raising the vessel and a screw propeller that are still in use.

 

On September 6, 1776, the Turtle, piloted by Sergeant Ezra Lee, made an attack on British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship, the HMS Eagle, moored off Governor’s Island in New York harbor. Lee made two attempts to attach the explosive device to the hull of the Eagle, but darkness, strong currents, and then the approach of dawn forced Lee to abandon his effort. On October 5, Lee attempted another assault on a frigate anchored off Manhattan, but the ship’s watch spotted him, so he abandoned the operation. Later, the British sank the Turtle’s tender vessel near Fort Lee, New Jersey, with the Turtle onboard.

 

In July 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote from Paris to George Washington and requested that he “be so kind as to communicate to me what you can recollect of Bushnel’s experiments in submarine navigation during the late war, and whether you think his method capable of being used successfully for the destruction of vessels of war. It’s not having been actually used for this purpose by us, who were so peculiarly in want of such an agent seems to prove it did not promise success.”

 

On September 26, 1785, Washington responded, “Bushnel is a Man of great Mechanical powers—fertile of invention—and a master in execution—He came to me in 1776 recommended by Governor Trumbull (now dead) and other respectable characters who were proselites to his plan. Although I wanted faith myself, I furnished him with money, and other aids to carry it into execution. He laboured for sometime ineffectually, & though the advocates for his scheme continued sanguine he never did succeed. One accident or another was always intervening. I then thought, and still think, that it was an effort of genius; but that a combination of too many things were requisite, to expect much Success from the enterprise against an enemy, who are always upon guard. That he had a Machine which was so contrived as to carry a man under water at any depth he chose, and for a considerable time & distance, with an apparatus charged with Powder which he could fasten to a Ships bottom or side & give fire to in any given time (Sufft for him to retire) by means whereof a ship could be blown up, or Sunk, are facts which I believe admit of little doubt—but then, where it was to operate against an enemy, it is no easy matter to get a person hardy enough to encounter the variety of dangers to which he must be exposed. 1[. from the novelty 2[. from the difficulty of conducting the Machine, and governing it under Water on Acct of the Currents &ca 3[. the consequent uncertainty of hitting the object of destination, without rising frequently above water for fresh observation, wch when near the Vessel, would expose the Adventurer to a discovery, & almost to certain death—To these causes I always ascribed the non-performance of his plan, as he wanted nothing that I could furnish to secure the success of it. This to the best of my recollection is a true state of the case.”

 

 

David Bushnell (1740-1824/1826) was born in Connecticut and entered Yale College in 1771 at the relatively old age of 31. While studying at Yale, Bushnell created the first submarine ever used in combat, the Turtle. He later turned his attention to the creation of torpedoes, or floating bombs. After the war, he returned to Connecticut, where he lived until 1787, when he moved to France. He settled in Warrenton, Georgia, in 1803 under a pseudonym and taught school and practiced medicine.

 

William Williams (1731-1811) was born in Connecticut and obtained a law degree from Harvard College in 1751. He also studied theology but joined the militia to fight in the French and Indian War. After the war, he opened a store in Lebanon, Connecticut. In 1771, he married the much younger daughter of Royal Governor Jonathan Trumbull, who became a patriot. Williams supported the protests that preceded the American Revolution as a member of the Sons of Liberty and Connecticut’s Committee of Correspondence and Council of Safety. Elected to the Continental Congress on July 11, 1776, Williams replaced Oliver Wolcott, who was leading Connecticut’s militia. Both Williams and Wolcott signed the Declaration of Independence as representatives of Connecticut. Williams served in the Continental Congress until 1777, then returned to Connecticut to serve as a judge. He was also a member of the Connecticut ratification convention in January 1788.

 

Matthew Griswold (1714-1799) was born in Connecticut and studied law. Admitted to the bar in 1742, he opened a practice in Lyme. He served as King’s Attorney for New London County, in the Connecticut General Assembly in 1748 and from 1751 to 1759, and on the Council of Assistants from 1759 to 1769. Each year from 1769 to 1784, he was elected Deputy Governor of Connecticut. After he failed to receive a majority of votes for governor in 1784, the General Assembly chose him as governor, and he was re-elected in 1785, serving in that office from May 1784 to May 1786. In January 1788, he served as the president of the Connecticut convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

 

John Lawrence (1719-1802) served as treasurer of the colony and then state of Connecticut for twenty years from 1769 to 1789. During the Revolutionary War, he was also commissioner of loans for the United States.

 

 

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