| FIRST SUBMARINE ON | |
| WAY TO SCRAP HEAP | |
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------------------ Holland, Once Wonder of Navy Was Sold for Junk. ------------------ |
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Thirteen years ago there was towed
down the Delaware River the submarine
boat Holland, the first and finest craft of
her kind in the service of the United
States Navy. She was an object of great
wonder as she was taken down to Dela-
ware City, thence through the Chesa-
peake and Delaware Canal to Annapolis.
Today the same craft, shorn of all her
glory, is retracing her former voyage,
bound for an ignomious doom at Henry
A. Hitner's Sons graveyard of ships be-
hind Petty Island. She will be converted
into scrap.
The Hitners purchased the vessel sev- eral months ago for $1075. The United States Navy in 1900 bought her from the Holland Torpedoboat Company for $150,000. She was pronounced a wonderful success, so great in fact that six others of her type, the Adder, Grampus, Mocassin, Pike, Porpoise and Shark, were ordered from the same company. On her way to the junk heap the Hol- land will pass the last word in submarine craft in the G-4, now nearing completion at the William Cramp & Sons Shipyard Engine Building Company's plant. The G-4 is constructed from Italian plans and will soon join the navy. |
The Holland was the result of a quarter
of a century experimentation by John P.
Holland, of Paterson, N. J. He con-
structed nine similar submarines before
he was satisfied and built the Holland on
speculation. After extensive tests under
the eyes of Government officials, one of
whom was Captain John Lowe, then
commandant of the local navy yard, and
a Congressional hearing the craft was
purchased.
At the Congressional hearing Admirals Dewey and Hichborn spoke in favor of the submarine. The former said: "Had the Spaniards two of these things in Manila I never could have held it with the squadron I had." Lieutenant H. H. Caldwell was the first commander of the Holland. She carried a crew of five men. She made six knots on the surface of the water and four knots under water. In the former she used her gasoline engines and the later her storage batteries furnished power. She is 63.4 feet overall in length, 11.3 feet diameter, 12.1 feet height, and displaces 123 tons of salt water. |