The Great Salt Water Enterprise

John Philip Holland And The Birth Of The Modern Submarine

By Daniel McCarthy

Das Boot, The Hunt for Red October, and many other Hollywood blockbusters from the depths of the ocean have been spawned from one of the most revolutionary developments in man's quest for superior weaponry - the submarine. Its mystique has always captured the public imagination, with its fascination for the underworld. The founding father of this devastating instrument of war was a young Christian Brothers graduate born in the west of Ireland on 24 February 1841, John Philip Holland.

Just off the coast from where Holland was born in Liscannor, West Clare lay the legendary land of Kilstephen, or Cill Stíopháin. There are constant references throughout the ages to this mystical place, which is said to have been submerged at the time of the great eight century earthquake. It is written in the Annals of the Four Masters in 799A.D. 'A great storm of wind, thunder and lightening happened this day before St. Patrick's festival this year, and it killed ten and one thousand persons in the Territory of Corca Baiscainn, and the Sea divided the island of Inis Fithae into three parts.' Holland knew of the sea's secrets from the cradle.

His father, John Senior, was a coastguard assigned to Liscannor sometime before his first wife died in January 1835. A short time later he married a local Liscannor girl called Mary Scanlan and together they had four children. John was their second child - Philip was the religious name given him in the Christian Brother Order.

He was born at the beginning of a decade of famine in Ireland and a cholera epidemic raged in its wake. When defaulting tenants were evicted from their cottages, landlords saw to it that the thatch was stripped off the roof to prevent impoverished families coming back. It was a process known as 'levelling' and the young Holland would have witnessed such tragedy growing up. To him it symbolised the tyranny of imperial domination, and it fired him to hit back. When the English man looked out to sea, he saw the waves which Britannia ruled with its all conquering navy, when the Irish man gazed upon the ocean, he heard beyond the sea of tears, the call of new lands. Holland's mechanical genius was to be dedicated towards altering this state of affairs. His invention was to change the course of modern warfare.

He attended St. McCreehy's National School in Liscannor and then the Christians Brothers secondary school in Ennistymon. In 1853, John's father retired from the coastguard service and the family moved to Limerick.

John Philip Holland joined the Order of the Irish Christian Brothers in 1858 and became a teacher. He was sent to the North Monastery in Cork for his first assignment and there he met Brother Dominic Burke a noted science teacher. Burke encouraged Holland's scientific experiments, and it is of note that Holland did not have to make any radical change to his original concept. In these formative years he studied astronomy, and worked on the theory of flight which experts said was accurate. While in Cork city he started to experiment with small models of submarine boats and a pond in the school grounds was used to test his designs. He was thinking along the same lines of David Bushnell whose Turtle (a full size model of which is exhibited at the Royal Navy Submarine in Gosport, Britain) was designed to attack British men-of-war in New York Harbour during the American War of Independence.

In 1862, the American Civil War was receiving worldwide publicity and Holland noted the use of ironclad ships in the battles. He also noted the use of submarine type vessels in the battles, such as the Confederate semi-submersible Hunley, which sank its much stronger Federal foe the Housatonic in 1864.

The now Brother Holland worked as a teacher around Ireland and by 1865 he had based himself in Drogheda, Co. Louth. In 1872, Holland's mother and brother Alfred emigrated to the USA, in that same year he decided not to take his final perpetual vows. Instead on the 26th May 1873 he departed for Boston in the USA via Liverpool. In 1874, he had found himself in a teaching post in St. Johns Parochial School in Paterson, New Jersey. It was here that John Philip Holland 'immersed' himself in the working design of the submarine.

The Irish World newspaper launched an appeal fund. The successful testing of Holland's 33-inch model submarine at Coney Island, New York, convinced the Fenian leadership to sponsor Holland's $4,000 construction of a full-sized 'wrecking boat' from its 'Skirmishing Fund'. The 'success of this 14-foot model led to the $20,000 funding by the Fenians on a second venture by Holland in 1881. This craft, over twice as large as its predecessor and dubbed the 'Fenian Ram' by a New York Sun reporter, was also successful. While Holland was engaged on a third prototype project, an internal rift developed amongst the Fenians, some of whom were growing impatient about slow progress on the diving boat. One group decided to take the 'Ram' into their own hands. One source suggested that this was primarily to avoid legal sequestration while their monies were in dispute. Led by John Breslin, with forged papers, they towed away the Fenian Ram and Boat No. 3 up the East River into Long Island Sound. Just off Whitestone Point the prototype was sank, while the Fenian Ram was taken to Mill river in New Haven where it remained in a shed until the 1916 Rising, where it was displayed at Madison Square Gardens to raise money for dependants of the Rising in Dublin. The Fenian Ram is today on display at Paterson Museum, New Jersey.

Although the Holland VI was formally commissioned into the United States Navy on 12 October 1900, the date it was officially bought, 11 April 1900, is celebrated by the US Navy as the submarine birthday. Another day when Holland is now perpetually commemorated is 1 May. It was on this date in 2006 that John Philip Holland Day was declared in Paterson New Jersey. The day is now established in tribute to the Liscannor born inventor of the 'Modern Day Submarine' John P. Holland. This son of Liscannor was buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Totowa, Paterson, New Jersey, on 14 August 1914 having succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 73.

Speaking at the 2006 event to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the launching of the world's first working submarine, the Mayor of the City of Paterson Jose 'Joey' Torres thanked the members of the Liscannor/Paterson twinning committee for attending the celebrations. In recognition of the attendance by the Clare delegation he offered the people of Liscannor 'Sister City' status in honour of the day. The event took place in the Paterson Museum where one can now see on permanent display the original and first working submarine, which is called the 'Fenian Ram' or the Holland II.

Just recently in Ireland, a bronze sculpture was unveiled outside the newly built Cliffs of Moher Hotel showing John Philip Holland emerging from the first fully commissioned submarine of the US Navy. The Bronze sculpture was crafted and designed by local sculptor Shane Gilmore and the piece was cast in the Connolly family foundry works in Kilbaha.