Westbrook, in Middlesex County, is located in southern Connecticut on the Long Island Sound. Originally part of Saybrook Colony, it was known as Pochaug until 1810 and incorporated as a town in 1840. Timber from local white oak and chestnut forests sustained a shipbuilding industry that flourished for nearly a century. The most famous vessel associated with the town of Westbrook is the Turtle, the world’s first submarine, invented by Westbrook-native David Bushnell. By the 1870s, the area had become a popular summer resort town—a characteristic it still retains today.
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David Bushnell and his Revolutionary Submarine
How a farmer’s son became the Father of Submarine Warfare during the American Revolution. …[more]