Launching of One of the Holland Boats, the Holland, at Elizabethport, N. J., 1897.
From a photograph belonging to the John P. Holland Co.
The third of the “newfangled ideas” is really a very old idea, as the reader will observe. It is a submarine boat designed to travel in ordinary circumstances with its back out of water, and yet be able, when occasion requires, to go underneath altogether. It is the invention of Mr. John P. Holland, who for many years has been at work on the cigar-shaped diving-ship idea. The one now building (1897) is only eighty-five feet long by eleven in diameter—a mere model of what a ship ought to be, if the idea were to be thoroughly tested. It might, indeed, be of some use for raising a blockade of the port of New York, just as smaller vessels were used to damage Union ships off Charleston in the Civil War. But, as already said over and again, the navy that the American nation needs is one that will prevent any nation on earth contemplating a blockade of any American port. However, this is not to condemn the building of this submarine boat. It was well worth building, just as the tiny ship in which Ericsson proved his screw propeller was worth building. Considerable space was given in Volume I to the doings of the submarine boats in the Revolutionary War because the building of ships which might be entirely submerged has never been attempted on a scale that would warrant a fair trial of the idea. There are many difficulties to be overcome, the chief of which is due to the fact that the ordinary compass goes wrong altogether when placed in a diver. It is nevertheless reasonable to suppose that every defect may be overcome. It is certain that the defects will not be overcome until a fair trial of the ship is had. Because of certain manifest advantages in having a ship that can live entirely submerged as well as when awash, or floating high out of water, there are men who believe that such ships will eventually become veritable peace-makers. We who are conservatives call them visionaries, and they reply that men of our class called Capt. M. C. Perry a visionary in 1839 because he said he believed that steamships would eventually supersede the gloriously beautiful frigate of the olden day.
Another One of the Holland Submarine Boats: the Plunger.
(Submerged, with camera lucida tube in position.)
From a photograph of a drawing belonging to the John P. Holland Co.
Of the doings of the navy since the Civil War little need be said. We have had no war with any people, although on two or three occasions American commanders have been obliged to strip their ships for action to enforce a decent respect for the American flag. The most notable instance of this kind was in 1894. The Brazilian navy was then in revolt against the Brazilian government, and the bay of Rio Janeiro was held by the rebel squadron. The purpose of the revolt, so far as it had a purpose outside of the personal feelings of the leaders, was to restore the monarchy. The insurgents would have been driven into making peace very quickly but for the fact that the British, in the interests of trade and politics, were very anxious to have the monarchy restored. British residents of Rio Janeiro contributed considerable sums of money to the support of the rebels and served actively as spies on the government. The senior officer of the British navy present, under the plea of neutrality, was able to see that the rebel leaders received all the rights of belligerents, although no nation had accorded these rights to them. For a time all the foreign warships in port, except the Germans, sided with the British in this matter. It is a curious fact that the senior American officer present refused to give protection to American merchantmen in port when they wished to go to the piers to discharge their cargoes. The rebel leader, Saldanha de Gama, said he should fire on any ship going to the piers, and American ships had to lie out in the bay and wait for the end of the war. Meantime yellow fever was raging there and many good men lost their lives.
Finally Admiral A. E. K. Benham came to the port. He at once told the American captains to go to the piers, and he would see that they were not fired upon—at least that trouble for the rebel fleet should follow any such move on their part.
Accordingly, on Sunday, January 29, 1894, Captain Blackford, of the American bark Amy, and two other captains, gave notice that they should haul into the piers with their ships on Monday morning. Admiral Saldanha de Gama, hearing of this, said officially that he should fire on the merchantmen if they did so. The rebel squadron was, as a whole, a worthless collection of old wooden hulks and new coasters armed with fairly good guns; but there was one good monitor, the Aquidaban, so there was no predicting what the desperate rebel would do. It was necessary to take de Gama at his word, and so, soon after daylight on the morning of the 30th, the Yankee squadron cleared for action, while the little cruiser Detroit, Capt. Willard H. Brownson, was sent in to take a station where she could command the two rebel warships, Guanabara and Trajano, that lay where they could, if so disposed, riddle the merchant ship Amy.