Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-06

battle between the Monitor and the Merri-
mac it struck me very forcibly that the
day of wooden walls for vessels Of war had
passed. and that iroEclad ships had come to
stay forever. | reflected that with her ire
mendOus facilities England would apply
them to the situation and become the chief
naval power of the world: and l wondered
how she could be retarded in her designs
upon the other peoples of the word and
how they would protect themselves against
those designs. a short time after that. fol-
lowing out the ideas thus inspired /
thought it ought to be possible that boat
could be made that would go under water
Then ] was only aware that the only man
who mad ever tried to solve that problem
was Robert Fulton the inventor of the
steamboat. and that his attempt was a fail
ure.
Studying the Problem. .-.
Some years afterward-it was in 1870,
l think-1 was In bad health and was COM
PEELED to take vacation from my duties
as a pedagogue. and for d while time passed
heavily on my hands i happened to revert
to the submarine boat idea. At first
thought it absurd and impossible but anon
reflection | determined that it was unfair to
condemn 6. notion without sensible investi-
CATION. Accordingly / started to consider
what physical difficulties stood in the way
of the success of such an experiment Nat
urally several suggested themselves to my
mind. First was the difficulty of carrying
sufnclent air to support the life of those
within submerged boat, but it didn't take
me two minutes to convince myself that
there was no obstacle on that point
The next question was how to prevent
the boat from sinking to the bottom when
under water. and how to handle her when
submerged in case sufficient power was
available. | found the solution to these
problems simple enough, because it was
very plain that if the boat and it's contents
together could be made of the same weight
as an equal volume of water very slight
for -
either up or down or horizontal. and there
fore that the boat could be propelled by the
ordinary propeller. and her motions in the
vertical or horizontal planes be controlled
IN the ordinary way by rudderS. There
Were practically no other difficulties in the
way. the strength of shell to resist pressure
of the water being a very simple one, in
deed.
4 Prime Considerations.
II completed design that embodied most
of the principles developed later in the
present boat. One of them was that a sub
marine boat should be as small as possible
consistently with possessing sufficient Of
fensive powers. She requires other de-
fensive power than submerging herself rap
:dly and awaiting herself of the armor pro-
vded by the water, so to speak.
II laid my plans away in an envelope
among my papers and thought little more
Of them until | came to this country in
1873" continued Mr.. Holland with remi-
niscent smile, land one day In the follow
ing winter | slipped the ice in Boston
and broke my leg. ! laid up for three
months. and. needing something to pass tn,
time away l began to think Of my sub
marine boat l had search IT. de through
my effects for my former solutions of the
problem and fortunately the friend 1 had
intrusted with the duty found them.
Started All Over Again.
When l was on the point of opening
the envelope containing them 1t occurred to
me 1t would be better to begin at the be-
ginning Of the subject and study it out over
again from the start without looking at
what l had done before l followed out
my impression, and 1 was very much sur
pr!sed and gratified to see that both plans
We're almost exactly alike. embodying the
same principles. | then put them both
away and actually forgot all about them
until in 1919 a friend who happened to be
going over some of my papers discovered
them and urged me to send them to the
Navy Department.
Capt. simpsons Conclusions.
Il did SO Immediately, and Secretary
Robeson referred them to the late Admiral
Simpson, then captain at Newport. After
careful study Capt Simpson praised their
ingenuity and admitted the practicability of
everything claimed for boat built accord
ing to the plans. but rejected them on the
ground that it would be impossible to get
men to operate such boats. The subject
was again referred to Capt. Simpson, who
again rejected them on the ground that the
boat could not be steered under water; that
1t would be like a man trying to navigate
vessel in a fog
At this "Reminiscences Mr. Holland smiled
again.
Advised to Drop 1t.
"A few weeks afterward 1 wrote Cant
Simpson. requesting his. advice, unoffi-
cjally, as to what I should do, seeing that
my plans were rejected by him after he
had made the admission that they seemed
to be all right. He very kindly advised me
to drop the whole matter. assuring me
that 1t was very uphill work to put any
thing through in Washington. Now. con-
sidering that the word anything is very
broad and covers even perfection itself. I
judged it wise to follow his advice to drop
it. and so did.
I'm the early summer of IT friend adj
vanced money to build an experimentalyes
sci. but he insisted that should put engines
in it. That boat vas built at the old ALBANY
street iron works. New York 1 expert
mented with 1t on the Pasaic river above
the Falls bridge at Paterson, n ], made
some important discoveries, even though l
was hampered by an engine that proved to