John P. Holland biography and submarines

The early years

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland seems like an unlikely place for the start of a fundamental change in naval warfare. This sleepy little village on the rugged western shore of central Ireland overlooks the placid Liscannor Bay. The narrow streets are lined with picturesque cottages, separated from the streets by "dry" (i.e. mortarless) stone fences made of flat granite and limestone plates. The village is surrounded by the rolling green hills of Ireland, interspersed with terraced farm fields.

Image courtesy of Google Maps

On a cold and windy February 24, 1841, John Holland Jr. was born to parents John Sr. and Mary Scanlan Holland in a small coastguard cottage on Castle Street. He was the 2nd of what was to be four siblings, all boys. John Sr. eked out a modest living as a member of the Royal Coastguard Service, and his father's service instilled in John an interest in the sea. County Clare was traditionally Irish, with English spoken only as an aside.

In fact, John did not speak any English until he attended the St. Macreehy's National School just down the street from the house in Liscannor. John proved to be a capable student, but struggled with serious health issues, including poor eyesight. His family survived the Great Famine in Ireland relatively intact only because his father's employment gave them a relatively clean and well maintained house. John witnessed the depredations of the Great Famine firsthand, and the British government's lack of response instilled in him a deeply seated animosity towards the British.

John took to his studies with vigor and by 1853 his family moved to Limerick with John attending the Christian Brothers School there. By age 17 he joined the brotherhood and was given the Christian name Philip, which he retained for the rest of his life. He was soon accepted as a teacher. During this period he fell under the influence of Brother James Dominic Burke, a renowned man of science. John took to the science studies with gusto, displaying a tremendous mechanical aptitude. Brother Burke was conducting experiments in underwater propulsion using electricity and the firing of torpedoes against ships in a model basin. These activities struck a spark in John, and he began his lifelong fascination with submarines.

When exactly he designed his first submarine is somewhat up for debate, but it is quite likely that he made his first sketches during the period of 1858-1872, as he moved in and out of various Christian Brothers sponsored teaching positions while dealing with several health issues. Although this sketch here comes from a later interpretation, this is essentially the first design from the fertile mind of John P. Holland. As you can see here this was a human powered affair, with a recumbent seated operator wearing a diving suit. Ballast controls were between the operator's legs as he pushed two treadles that were mechanically linked to the propeller shaft. The boat was rectangular in cross section, with four detachable "torpedoes" (i.e. mines) in a compartment behind the operator. This design was never built, as even John could recognize its limitations. In some texts it is referred to as the "Holland I" design, although Holland himself never referred to it in this fashion.

1872 would prove to be a watershed year in the life of John P. Holland. That year he became involved in an effort sponsored by subset of the Christian Brothers that campaigned for better and more efficient schools. This effort angered the bulk of the group, who saw it as an affront to their teaching philosophy. John was also continuously battling health issues, and these stresses caused him to decline perpetual vows with the order at Christmas 1872. His father had passed away many years earlier, and his elderly mother and brother Michael had emigrated to the U.S. He decided to join them and set sail for a new life in the states on May 26, 1873. He spent the summer and fall in Liverpool while he awaited further passage, finally landing in Boston in November, 1873. Nearly broke when he landed, one of the few possessions that he had upon arrival were the drawings of his initial submarine design.

He no sooner landed in a wintery Boston when he slipped and fell on an icy street. He broke a leg, and spent the next three months laid up in bed as he healed. He used the time to go back and reconsider his submarine designs, refining them and improving the drawings. John landed a job at the St. John's Parochial School in Paterson, NJ and began working in earnest on his submarine ideas in his spare time. After consulting with a friend in 1875, he submitted the initial pedal powered design to the Navy Department. The Navy utterly rejected Holland's work, with the Secretary calling it "a fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman."

It was at this time that his brother Michael introduced him to members of the Fenian Brotherhood, an American based society of Irish expatriates whose goal was the overthrow of British influence and control in Ireland. The Fenians did not shy away from violence as a means to an end, and Holland's technical expertise and fervent belief in a free Ireland impressed the Fenian leadership. They saw his concepts as a means of hitting back at the British Royal Navy.

Holland I

Photo courtesy of the Paterson Museum

In August, 1876 the Fenians agreed to finance the construction of a prototype. By this time Holland had been influenced by the industrial revolution and the design that he had built for the Fenian demonstrations was considerably more advanced. Now officially dubbed the "Holland I" by its inventor, this boat was 14 feet long and 3 feet wide and was designed for a one man crew. It was built in a local iron works in Paterson, Todd & Rafferty's, with some elements manufactured at the Albany City Iron Works in New York City. Iron hulled and riveted together, manufacturing was kept simple by making the cross-section of the boat square, allowing the simpler cutting and bending of the iron plates without having to roll them into a circular shape. It was no longer human powered. A 15 hp, two cylinder Brayton Ready Motor was installed just forward of the operator station, turning a two blade propeller. One set of diving planes was sited amidships, where they could be easily worked by the single operator. A small cylindrical conning tower with a single forward viewing deadlight porthole was sited center topside. The operator's head would be up in the conning tower while seated below it and aft of the engine.

The Brayton engine was the only means of propulsion. There was no battery or electric motor for submerged propulsion. Compressed air tanks fore and aft supplied air for the engine, breathing, and blowing ballast tanks. Exhaust from the engine was vented overboard. Using less air than a modern lawnmower gasoline engine, running the Brayton engine while submerged was at least practical, if not incredibly dangerous. Even still its use would have resulted in a very limited underwater endurance, as rather soon you would simply run out of air.

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