John Philip Holland

John Philip Holland (February 24th 1841 - August 12th 1914) was the engineer who developed the first submarines of the US Navy, of the Royal Navy and the Japanese imperial Marine. He is regarded as one of the most outstanding personalities of the epopee of the submarines.

Biography

John Phillip Holland was born with Liscannor in the Comté from Clare in Ireland. His/her brother was militant Irish Republican Brotherhood, it introduced John with the movement. All dreamed to remove their native soil from the British invader, thus Holland and the Fenian S conceived a plan which consisted in developing a submarine which can be transferred onto a trading vessel and brought near a British Warship. The submarine would be then launched and could attack the British vessel.

In 1873 John Holland left the Ireland for the the United States, it joined his brother and his mother with Boston in the Massachusetts. It then left to teach with Paterson in the New Jersey. In 1875 it sent the plans of its first submarine to US Navy which returned them to him while indicating to him that its project was unrealizable. Fenians continued to finance research and the development of the submarine, Holland could even leave its post of teacher and full-time be devoted to its project. The result of these efforts was the Fenian RAM which was launched in 1881. Little time after the relations between Holland and Fenians worsened, which meant the end of collaboration, and Holland had to seek other funding sources.

The following submarine (Holland IV) was built whereas Holland worked for the Zalinski Pneumatic Gun Company. In 1888 it was registered with a contest organized by the American Navy and gained the first price, although its project does not have any funding source. In 1893, Holland was again prize winner of the contest organized by US Navy, this time for its submarine with vapor equipped with torpedes. It created the same year its own company, the Torpedo Boat Company. He undertook the construction of the Plunger, submarine with vapor of twenty-seven meters, following a ordering of the Navy, but its sights diverged from those of the engineers from Navy and the project was abandoned.

Holland did not believe in the future of the submarines in vapor. It thus developed the Holland VI, which combined an electrical motor and a petrol engine. Holland also added a safety vessel, giving to the building a positive buoyancy in the event of urgency. Near to the ruin, it decided to sell its company with the Electric Boat Company (which is today a subsidiary company of General Dynamics). At the request of US Navy, it made add torpedo tubes, equipped with the standard torpedes Whitehead. April 11th, 1900, the Holland VI was bought by the American marine for the sum of 150.000 $, which covered half of the costs of construction. Navy renamed the submarine US Holland, it was the first submarine of the American navy. Four months later 6 other submarines were ordered, which were used later as model with the submarines built for the navy British, Dutchwoman and Japanese woman.

Holland dies in August 1914, a few months before a German submarine sends by the bottom a British vessel to the beginnings of the First World War. He dies in quasi an anonymity, ruined. They is only years after its death which its work was recognized and which one returned to him homage.

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