, so far as this submarine vessel was concerned,
Bushnell's great invention came to naught. And, indeed, it was but the
first of a long line of experiments which have been terribly costly in
human life, and which as yet have not been brought to a successful
end. In every war there comes forward the inventor with the submarine
boat, and he always finds a few brave men ready to risk their lives in
the floating coffin. Somewhere in Charleston Harbor to-day lies a
submarine boat, enclosing the skeletons of eight men, who went out in
it to break the blockade of the port during the civil war. And
although there are to-day several types of submarine boat, each of
which is claimed to make practicable the navigation of the ocean's
depths, yet it is doubtful whether any of them are much safer than
Bushnell's primitive "turtle."

But Bushnell's experiments in torpedo warfare were not confined to
attempts to destroy hostile vessels by means of his submarine vessel.
He made several attacks upon the enemy by means of automatic
torpedoes, none of which met with complete success. One of these
attacks, made at Philadelphia in December, 1777, furnished the
incident upon which is founded the well-known ballad of the "Battle of
the Kegs."

It was at a time when the Delaware was filled with British shipping,
that Bushnell set adrift upon its swift-flowing tide a number of small
kegs, filled with gunpowder, and provided with percussion apparatus,
so that contact with any object would explode them. The kegs were
started on their voyage at night. But Bushnell had miscalculated the
distance they had to travel; so that, instead of reaching the British
fleet under cover of darkness, they arrived early in the morning.
Great was the wonder of the British sentries, on ship and shore, to
see the broad bosom of the river dotted with floating kegs. As the
author of the satirical ballad describes it,--

"Twas early day, as poets say,
Just as the sun was rising;
A soldier stood on a log of wood
And saw the sun a-rising.

As in amaze he stood to gaze
(The truth can't be denied, sir),
He spied a score of kegs, or more,
Come floating down the tide, sir.

A sailor, too, in jerkin blue,
The strange appearance viewing,
First d----d his eyes in great surprise,
Then said, 'Some mischief's brewing.'