| HOLLAND, FIRST | |
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SUBMARINE VESSEL, |
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| A NEGLECTED RELIC | |
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| Buried in Sand in "Grave- yard of Ships," Along With Other once Fa- mous Craft, Now Dis- mantled and Forgotten. | |
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Partly buried in the sand, half-filled
with the waters of the Delaware River,
neglected and almost forgotten, the first
modern submarine the United States ever
owned, the Holland, is laying today an ig-
nominious wreck in the "Graveyard of
Ships" of Henry A. Hitner's Sons Com-
pany, back of Petty's Island, opposite
Cramer Hill. Nearby lie the hulks of
other vessels which once proudly sailed
the seven seas. Pieces of ships that
have made places in history are scattered
around on the beach. Advanced types of the Holland have revolutionized modern naval warfare. The country is clamoring for the building of more of the under-water craft, yet the vessel which made the success of the mod- ern submarine possible is now a prey to the heartless machines of the scrap iron dealer. She has been ripped apart, her engines removed and is now a mockery of the vessel she was when John J. Hol- land sold her to the Government 15 years ago. Around this dilapidated craft is written the history of the indomitable courage, the painful patience and inflexible per- severence of her inventor. She repre- sents the labors of a quarter of a cen- tury. Holland constructed many sub- marines which were unsuccessful before the Government finally accepted the Hol- land. |
Lewis Nixon's plant at Elizabeth, N.J.,
turned out the Holland, along the lines
suggested by her inventor. She was 53
feet, 10 inches in length, 10 feet 3 inches
in breadth, with a depth of 10 feet 7
inches. Her displacement was 75 tons.
The Government paid $150,000 for the
craft, which the builders said had cost,
counting the price of the experiments
previously, more than $200,000. She was
such a success that six similar sub-
marines were ordered immediately. They
have all been superseded by modern
craft. The Holland was operated on the sur- face by gasoline engines with a speed of seven knots. Electric motors supplied the under-water motive power at less speed. One of the features of the boat was the ariel gun in the bow, which could throw a shell of high explosive nearly a mile. Keeping the Holland company in the "cemetery" are the remains of the Brit- ish steamship Santos, which later became a fruit steamship called Venus and before her death was the Maximo Ferez, a gun- boat of the Nicaraguan Navy. When she was being broken up a swarm of tarantu- las hidden in the cattle hair used for refrigerating purposes drove the workmen overboard. With her bow lying against the Maximo Ferez is the old iron side- wheel steamboat Clinton, which plied for many years between Jacksonville and Havana. She was built in Wilmington in 1872. |