It’s not quite that bad, as taken from the wikipedia article at least it was a proper screw propeller and not the… whatever the hell those things are in the OP image. But still pretty damn silly.
This 19th-century diagram shows the side views of Turtle. It incorrectly depicts the propeller as a screw blade; it was actually a paddle propeller blade, as seen in the replica shown above and reported by Sergeant Lee.
Also, I believe the turtle predates the development of the safety bicycle - possibly it predates even the concept of pedal powered drives like we have in the modern day. This was a hundred years before the penny-farthing when the turtle was developed, after all.
Much better to hand crank a direct drive screw through the water
It’s not quite that bad, as taken from the wikipedia article at least it was a proper screw propeller and not the… whatever the hell those things are in the OP image. But still pretty damn silly.
Also, I believe the turtle predates the development of the safety bicycle - possibly it predates even the concept of pedal powered drives like we have in the modern day. This was a hundred years before the penny-farthing when the turtle was developed, after all.