THE FIRST SUBMARINE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3008, 20 February 1917, Page 5

THE FIRST SUBMARINE

EARLY STRUGGLES OF INVENTORS

;>. Two weeks after the out!Jrealf<of war In Europe, and ono month before the first British ships wore suric\y a German submarine, there tliod in "Newark, .ftew.- Jersey, U.S.A., the man whose . life work resulted in the evolution oE n workable submarine from a clumsy idea... Than tho perfection oTa deadly underseas craft Jobn Holland, born ■■in' County Clare, Ireland, in 1842, had no other passion—save ono. That pno }vas that Ireland should have autonomy. 1 iheso two passions supplemented each .other.. As long as.England remained : ■ mistress of tho seas Holland saw no ■hope for an Irish Republic. It is said -,■■:■ Ithat forty years,ago, when Holland . : iu-st undertook the rather sizeable contract of destroying tho British Navy with an underwater boat which stuck ln . the mud, with ari;engino as irresponsible as a hypochondriao and a hull that leaked, he furnished the lmraorouß journalists of the world with moro and better .material than had. say other: person or object (with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln) for a hunwred years. Holland and Jns_ boat .were. tho. epitome of tho ridiculous. Reared in Ireland amid the etirring scenes of the nineteenth he received a.good rudimentary education.' He became a teacher in a Christian Brothers' school in Ireland. He heard nf the attempts of David Bushuell and Robert Fulton to build a submersible craft, and he. read of the declaration made to Fulton by Lord St. Vincent, when the inventor sought to interest him in tho submarine. Such a craft, snid the sea lord, was of no value to the nation that commanded tho seas. Holland became obsessed'by tho idea, and worked continuously on submarine ; ; \ plans.. Far from gettinc backers, he ■. \ Jacked even listeners. Then ho went, \ to America, hoping to find financial help there. When ho arrived in Boston ho was ill, and was taken to the public hospital. During .a Ion? and. tedions convalescence ho worked over his plans, and he completed them. He found no backers in tho Now World, end was finally obliged to lay aside his wans and take up school teaching in Patterson, New Jersey. Ho saved his surplus and built an experimental boat of wood, which he ever afterwards insisted contained all tho essential ideas of his perfected machine.. Its launching however, TvaK a tragic failure from ell standpoints other than tlose of the cnmics, and Holland, in a rage, lowed nis pathefao craft upstream one darkBight, and sunk her in.tho mud, where fine remains to this day. ' •

The "Fenian Ram."

, A little later ho laid his ideas before an Irish patriots' society that was j. ll Control of a large "skirmishing fund, and the society decided to de- •™«> 80,000 dollars to the perfection of 'Holland's boat. The: first one failed Iwcause of faulty construction, but demonstrated the correctness of his principles. .Encouraged, he wont ahead mth a second one, which was a complete _snccess.J Holland gave up school teaching, and doyotcd his entire time .to submarirta navigation, and! &>pt the. people arouftd tho waters of Now York Mghly entertained with his experiments! Ho cruised around, and bobbed up and * flown, causing stories of soa'serpents, .frhalos, and derelicts to riot on the eastern coast. The : newspapers gave columns of Ids- activities, and dubbed Ins craft the "Fenian Earn." His greatest improvement over other submarines was tbo rapidity with which ho bould submerse his vessel. Up to this lime all subniersibles ,had sunk.on ah fcven keel, consuming 10 to 15 minutes <n the operation—plenty of time for an enemy to get homo a fatal shot. Holland (he said he took the porpoise for his model) was able to rise to tho surface and! disappear j'n 5 seconds. ■ About.this tim.o .-thJ.Eafcriots (after ,fcbe fash'ion'of the' Irish .patriots), fell 'out, and one faction "kidnapped" the Ram, towed it,to New; Haven, , Conn., : hauled it on to dry land, and stored it in an outlying shed of a brass factory. It is still there. Inventors "and mechanics in- all-countries, ■■ especially in America and France, continued to' work on submarines, and in 1985 tbo V B Wavy. Department advertised for plans jfor a. submarine, .to'be-built at the internment's expense. Many plans wore submitted, and when the host was selected it was discovered that tho inventor was Holland.. Thou began a long struggle with officials and professionals, who insisted on "improving" his specifications. Holland was not an Engineer, but he was a trained draftsman, and he had no patience with the technicians, .whom, ho insisted, were revising his plans downward. :'• Many Subsequent failures were credited by Holland 1 to these modifications, and finally, in disgust, his company refunded ! ..to the: Government 951000 dollars,, and Holland, in anger' and despair, . once more, 'retired from the submersible stage. '.:. " :'■ . ,■ ■■

; The Holland. Then he came back, with a final rebuesfc to be allowed to-build one boat (exclusively on his own plans. The refcult was the "Holland," completed in 1898, the first practicable submersible fcraft, and probably tho most important iwaf vessel'.that has been constructed since the beginning of time. Tho Holland was 50 feet long, and carried one torpedo tube. It could submerse in five seconds, and responded like a Jmrebred to its operator's touch. li> was completed a few weeks before the Wowing up.of tho Maine, and its wild Inventor besought tho Government for permission to take- ifc into Santiaco Harbour and blow up the Spanish jn retaliation. Hβ caused the Gavemjment' officials some real uneasiness in (those critioal days. The Holland participated in the anJnual manoeuvres off Nowport'in 1900, )Mid every officer in the Navy testified +o its potentiality. Admiral Dewey, hero of Manila Bay, in an address bebefore tho Committee o.n Naval Affairs, Said, amonp; othor things, that "tho moral_ effect, to mymind, is infinitely isuperior to mines or anything else of the kind. These things, moving under water, wear out tho hardiest. "With ;mvo of them in Galveston all the navies pi tfie world could not blockade tho place.

In 1904 England began building subhiarmos ." after plans purchased from Hollands company. In 1905 Japan followed suit, and endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to induco Holland to co to 'Japan to supervise the construction of her submarines. In his Newark home, however, ho drew tho plans for the present Japaneso stibmersiblo fleet. He always contended that Japan and Gormanv were tho only two countries that. liad tlwtme Holland 'svhmarino, and Lβ died out of sorts wiVii his own country because of tho alterations that had been made m his specifications. However, all tho submarines of all the Savws ato esscTrtia'fiy or the Holland type. ,