John Phillip Holland was born in Co Clare, Ireland in 1841, an area devastated by the Irish Famine which had not recovered by 1851. Holland's father was a long serving member of the Coastguard Service, he died in 1852. Holland's family moved to Limerick City. By 1858 Holland was a teacher with the Irish Christian Brothers. In 1862 Holland read a report on the Battle of Hampton Roads between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor and later the sinking of the USS Housatonic by the Confederate submarine H L Hunley in 1864. This was the first time in history a submarine had sunk an enemy ship.
The Holland Submarine
Holland designed and tested model submarines in local rivers near Drogheda, northeast Ireland. The Fenian rebellion in Ireland in 1867 was violently suppressed by the British, so, Holland's Fenian brother escaped to the United States. Holland left the Christian Brothers and joined his family in Boston in the United States in 1873. From 1875 Holland devoted more time to his submarine designs. The father of a boy he taught was a friend of Navy Secretary, George Robeson. A Navy Officer used some of Holland's notes in a lecture which attracted press speculation and British agents, who shadowed him.
The Fenians
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded on St Patrick's Day 1858 determined to form an Independent Republic of Ireland. Within months the American wing was formed and called the Fenians. Holland's younger brother Michael was a active member of the American Fenians. In 1877 the Fenians asked Holland to build them a submarine. Boat No.1 was built and tested on the Passaic River, Paterson, New Jersey in May 1878.
An improved Boat No. 2 was built by the Delameter Iron Works in New York with $20,000 from the Fenians. It required two long years for Boat No. 2 to be completed and the New York Sun gave it the name it would be known forever - the 'Fenian Ram'. In May 1881 it was finished and tested in the Hudson River it was 10 metres long 2 metres wide and displaced 20 tonnes. The submarine with a crew of three, Holland as pilot, travelled at 16k.p.h. moving as fast underwater as on the surface. The Fenian Ram was steady, dived smoothly and surfaced safely. The Swedish inventor, John Ericsson, who designed the USS Monitor, offered Holland some torpedoes to test. The US Government took an active interest in Holland's work.
The Fenians, doubting Holland's project, stole the Fenian Ram and the experimental Fenian Model. This was a bitter end to their association.
The Nautalis Submarine Boat Company
Edmund Zalinski offered Holland a contract forming the Nautalis Company in 1883 and built the Zalinski - 16 metres long 2.5 metres wide. Holland was unhappy with the design. The Nautalis Company was wound up in 1886. Holland's strongest competitor was Thorsten Nordenfeldt who kept his submarine horizontal when diving. Holland wanted his machines diving like a porpoise.
The Holland VI
The US Navy announced an open competition in 1888, for submarine designs. Holland won the competition in 1888 and 1889. Navy financing diverted the competition money elsewhere. In 1890 Holland commenced work with the Morris and Cummings dredging Company. Grover Cleveland became US President in 1892, promising investment in submarine technology. The John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Company with Morris as director won the US Navy competition for the third time and were awarded the US Navy contract for $200,000 in March 1895. This was Holland's fifth boat in which he had little faith because it was designed by a Naval committee. It was called The Plunger.
Holland had complete control of his next project, the Holland VI. By 1896 Holland's US Navy friend, Lieutenant Commander Kimball was urging the US government to invest in the new technology, claiming 'Six Holland submarines could stand off an entire British squadron.' On St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1898, the Holland VI 17 metres long, 2.5 metres wide and displacing 74 tonnes underwent sea trials. Newspaper reports were enthusiastic. In April 1898, Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the US Navy (and future US President) wrote to the US Navy Secretary urging the purchase of the Holland submarine boat for an impending war. That same month the US declared war on Spain in Cuba. In August 1898, a peace treaty was signed between the US and Spain. The Holland VI was declared the most stable and advanced submarine in the world.
The Electric Boat Company
Isaac Rice, a German entrepreneur, amalgamated the Holland's Torpedo Boat Company with his Electric Boat Company and Elihu Frost remained a director. This was an immediate success. The Holland VI was purchased in April 1900 for $150,000 by the US Navy and they ordered six more to be built by 1903, thereby establishing the United States first submarine fleet. Isaac secured orders for five submarines for delivery to Britain. The Holland VI was renamed the USS Holland SS-1. This was the pinnacle of Holland's career.
Frost and Rice believed they could mass produce the Holland VI and engineered Holland out of the company and misled him into signing away his international patents for his submarines. In March 1904 Holland resigned from the company he had helped to form. In 1904 the Electric Boat Company sold eleven submarines to Russia, Japan and the Netherlands.
Japanese officials approached Holland who designed two submarines for the Japanese Navy in 1905 with Holland awarded the Rising Sun Ribbon by the Japanese embassy in Washington. Frost prohibited Holland from designing any more submarines.
Holland's Legacy
Holland turned to machine flight and his design was similar to a modern helicopter yet the US Patent Office rejected his plans. Holland died in August 1914 and was buried in Paterson, New Jersey. Nearby, the Paterson Museum exhibits his Fenian Ram.
Within weeks of Holland's death, German U-Boats sank three British cruisers and commenced unrestricted submarine warfare during World War One. Holland expected the submarine to drive the battleship from the sea. He did not anticipate submarines being used against commercial shipping. Silent, secretive and invisible submarine warfare did not anticipate anti-submarine measures such as depth charges, anti-submarine planes and sonar detection. The Holland Class submarine became the basis for the US Navy's submarine fleet and was the blueprint for the British and German submarine fleets. The Electric Boat Company built eighty five submarines for the US Navy during World War One. In 1951 the Nautalis nuclear powered submarine was based on Holland's design principles.
Holland deserves to be acknowledged as the inventor of the modern submarine.
Sources
- William Maloney Holland's FenianRam
- John P. Holland, 1841-1914 by Richard Morris, University of South Carolina Press, 1998
- The Submarine in War and Peace by Simon Lake, J.P. Lippincott Company, 1918
- The Birth and Development of the American Submarine by Frank Cable, Harper, 1924
- The Irish Sword, Volume XXXIII, number 92 by Sean Ronan on Holland's links with Japan
Michael Manning - ' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity' W.B.Yeats
