Stories of Our Naval Heroes Every Child Can Read — John Shaqi
Stories of Our Naval Heroes Every Child Can Read
History
Stories of Our Naval Heroes Every Child Can Read
United States. Navy -- Biography
In later years Paul Jones served in Russia in the wars with the Turks.
But the British officers who were in the Russian service refused to
fight under him, saying that he was a rebel, a pirate, and a traitor.
This was because he had fought for America after being born in Scotland.
So, after some hard fighting, he left Russia and went back to France,
where he died in 1792.
In all the history of sea fighting we hear of no braver man, and the
United States, so long as it is a nation, will be proud of and honor the
memory of the gallant sailor, John Paul Jones.
CHAPTER VI
CAPTAIN BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH
THE PIONEER TORPEDO BOAT AND THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS
MANY of us, all our lives, have seen vessels of every size and shape
darting to and fro over the water; some with sails spread to the wind,
others with puffing pipes and whirling wheels.
And that is not all. Men have tried to go under water as well as on top.
Some of you may have read Jules Verne's famous story, "Twenty Thousand
Leagues under the Sea." That, of course, is all fiction; but now-a-days
there are vessels which can go miles under the water without once coming
to the top.
We call these submarine boats, and look upon them as something very new.
You may be surprised to learn that there was a submarine boat as long
ago as the War of the Revolution. It was not a very good one, and did
not do the work it was built for, but it was the first of its kind, and
that is something worth knowing.
Those of you who have studied history will know that after the British
were driven out of Boston they came to New York with a large army, and
took possession of that city. Washington and his men could not keep them
out, and had to leave. There the British lay, with their army in the
city and their fleet in the bay and river, and there they stayed for
years.
There was an American who did not like to see British vessels floating
in American waters. He knew he could not drive them away, but he thought
he might give them some trouble. This was a Connecticut man named David
Bushnell, a chap as sharp as a steeltrap, and one of the first American
inventors.
What Bushnell did was to invent a boat that would move under water and
might be made to blow up an enemy's ship. As it was the first of this
kind ever made, I am sure you will wish to know what it was like and how
it was worked.
He called it _The American Turtle_, for it looked much like a great
swimming turtle, big enough to hold a man and also to carry a torpedo
loaded with 150 pounds of gunpowder. This was to be fastened to the
wooden bottom of a ship and then fired off. It was expected to blow a
great hole in the bottom and sink the vessel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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