After he had gone Putnam and his officers watched anxiously for results. Time passed. Morning was at hand. The _Eagle_ rode unharmed. Evidently something had gone wrong. Had the torpedo failed, and was "Long Bige" resting in his wrecked machine on the bottom of the bay? Putnam swept the waters near the _Eagle_ with his glass. Suddenly he exclaimed. "There he is." The top of the _Turtle_ had just emerged, some distance from the ship. Abijah, fearing that he might be seen, had cast off the torpedo that he might go the faster. The clock had been set to run an hour, and at the end of that time there was a thundering explosion near the fleet, hurling up great volumes of water into the air. Soon there were signs of fright in the ships. The anchors were raised, sails were set, and off they went to safer quarters down the bay. They did not care to be too near such dangerous affairs as that. Boats were sent out to the aid of the _Turtle_ and it was brought ashore at a safe place. On landing Abijah gave, in his queer way, the reasons for his failure. "It's just as I said, Gineral; it went to pot for want o' that cud of tobacco. You see, I'm mighty narvous without my tobacco. When I got under the ship's bottom, somehow the screw struck the iron bar that passes from the rudder pintle, and wouldn't hold on anyhow I could fix it. Just then I let go the oar to feel for a cud, to steady my narves, and I hadn't any. The tide swept me under her counter, and away I slipped top o' water. I couldn't manage to get back, so I pulled the lock and let the thunder-box slide. That's what comes of sailing short of supplies. Say, can you raise a cud among you _now_?" Later on, after the British had taken the city of New York, two more attempts were made to blow up vessels in the river above the city. But they both failed, and in the end the British fired upon and sunk the _Turtle_. Bushnell's work was lost. The best he had been able to do was to give them a good scare. But he was not yet at the end of his schemes. He next tried to blow up the _Cerberus_, a British frigate that lay at anchor in Long Island Sound. This time a schooner saved the frigate. A powder magazine was set afloat, but it struck the schooner, which lay at anchor near the frigate. The schooner went to pieces, but the _Cerberus_ was saved. The most famous of Bushnell's exploits took place at Philadelphia, after the British had taken possession and brought their ships up into the Delaware River. One fine morning a number of kegs were seen floating down among the shipping. What they meant nobody knew. The sailors grew curious, and a boat set out from a vessel and picked one of them up. In a minute it went off, with the noise of a cannon, sinking the boat and badly hurting the man.