THE FIRST SUBMARINE

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 February 1917, Page 3

THE FIRST SUBMARINE

EARLY STRUGGLES OF 1 inventor, b

Two weeks alter the outbreak of war in Europe, and one month before the first British ships were sunk by a German submarine, there died in Newark, New Jersey, (J.S.A., the main whose-life work resulted ip the evolution of a workable submarine from a clumsy idea. Than the perfection of a deadly underseas craft John Holland, bom in County Clare, Ireland, in 1842, had no other passion—save One. That one was that Ireland should have autonomy. These two passions supplemented each other. As long as England remained mistress of the seas Holland saw no hope for an Irish Republic. It is said that forty years, ago, when Holland.first undertook the rather sizeable contract of destroying the British Navy with an underwater boat which stuck in the, mud; with an engine as irresponsible as a hypochondriac and it hull that leaked, lie furnished the humorous journalists of the world with more and better material than had any other person or object (with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln) for a hundred years. Holland and his boat were the epitome of the ridiculous. ■ Reared in Ireland amid the stirrihg scenes of the nineteenth century, he received a good rudimentary education. He became a teacher in a Christian .Brothers’ school in Ireland. He heard of the attempts of David Bushneil 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 the submarine. Such a craft, said the- g ea lord, was of no value to the nation that commanded th© seaHolland became obsessed by the idea and worked continuously on submarine plans. Far from getting backers, he lacked even listeners. Then lie went to America, hoping to find financial help flume. When he arrived in Boston he was ill, and wag taken, to the public hospital. During a long and tedious convalescence ho worked over his plans, and he completed them. He found nV> backers in the New World, and was finally obliged to lay |3?!*idc his plans and take up school teaching in Patterson, New Jet- ■ aey. He saved' his surplus and built an experimental boat of wood, which he ever afterwards, insisted contained all the essential ideas'of his perfected machine. Its launching, however, was a tragic failure from all standpoints otli'er than those of the comics, and Holland, in a rage, tteyed his pathetic craft up-stream one dark night, and sunk her in the mud, where she remains to this day. THE “FENIAN BAM.” A Utile later he laid Ids ideas before an Irish patriots’ society that was in. control cf a large “skirmishing fund,” and the society decided to vote 80,000 dollars to the perfection of Holland’s boat. f The first one failed because of faulty construction, but demonstrated the correctness of his principles. En. couraged, he went ahead with a second one. v Inch was a complete success. Holland gave up school teaching and devoted his entire ,timo to submarine navigation, and kept the people around the waters of New York highly entertained with his experiments. He cruised around, and bobbed up and down, causing stories of sea serpents, whales, and derelicts to riot on the eastern coast, The newspapers' o-ave columns of his activities, and dubbed his craft the “Fenian ram.” His greatest improvement over other submarines was the rapidity with which he could submerge his vessel. Up to this time all aubmerdbles had sunk, on an even keel, consuming ten to fifteen minutes ill tiie operation — plenty of time for an enemy to get home a fatal shot. Holland (he said he took the porpoise for his model) was able to rise to the surface and disappear in five seconds. About this time the patriots (after .the fashion of the Irish patriots) fell out, and one faction “kidnapped” m c ram, towed it to New Haven, Conn., hauled it on to dryland, 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 1890 the U.S. Navy Department advertised for plans for u submarine, to be built at the Government’s expense. Many plains were submitted, and when the best was selected it was discovered that the inventor was Holland. Then began a long struggle with officials and professionals, who [inflated on “improving” his specifications. Holland was not an engineer, hut he was n trained draughtsman, and he had no patience with the technicians, whom, he insisted, were revising his plans downwards. Many subsequent failures were credited by Holland to these modifications', and finally, in dis. ■ gust*, his company refunded to the Government 95,000 dollar, t, and Holland, in anger and despair, once"more retired from the siubmerr-ble stage. THE HOLLAND. Then he came back, with a final request to b n allowed to bio Id one boat exclusively on his own plans. The

result was the Holland, completed in 189iS, the first practicable submersible, craft, and probably the most important war vessel that has been constructed since the beginning of time. The .Holland was 50ft long, and carried one torpedo tube. It could submerse in five seconds, and responded like a purebred to its operator’s touch. It was completed a few weeks before Hie blowing up of the Main 6, and it si wild inventor besought the Government for permission to take it into Santiago Harbor and blow up the Spanish fleet in retaliation. He caused the Government officials some uneasi, ness in those critical days. The Holland participated, in the annual manoeuvres off Newport in 1900, and every officer in the Navy testified to its potentiality. Admiral- Dewey, hero of Manila Bay, in an address- before the Committee on Naval Affairs, said, among other things, that “the moral effect, to my mind, is infinitely superior to mines or anything else of the kind. These livings, moving under water, wear out the hardiest. With two of them in Galveston all tho pa vies of the world could not blockade the place.” In 1904 England began . buildibg submarines after plan®.purchased from Holland’s company. In 1905 Japan followed suit, and endeavored, unsuccessfully, to induce Holland to go t> , Japan- to supervise the construction of her submarines. In his Newark home, however, he drew the plans for the present Japanese submersible, fleet. He always contended that Japan and Germany were the only two countries that had the true Holland submarine, and he died out of sorts with his own country because of the alterations that had been made in his specifications'. However, all the shinna vines of all the navies are essen. tially of the Holland type.