A program of requirements, which undoubtedly would produce a weapon valuable for defence, was made up by the Navy Department, and these requirements were designated in the following order of importance:

  1. 1. Safety.
  2. 2. Facility and certainty of action when submerged.
  3. 3. Speed when running on the surface.
  4. 4. Speed when submerged.
  5. 5. Endurance, both submerged and on the surface.
  6. 6. Offensive power.
  7. 7. Stability.
  8. 8. Visibility of object to be attacked.

This standard of accomplishments is as important to-day as when it was first promulgated.

This first appropriation was brought about by a recommendation to Congress, made by Commander Folger, Chief of Ordnance, who had been much impressed with the possibilities of submarines after witnessing a test of the Baker boat in Lake Michigan. Commander G. A. Converse, president of the Torpedo Board, also made a report certifying that it was his belief that a larger vessel operating on the Baker principles would, with some modifications, prove valuable for defensive and offensive purposes.

France at this date was the only other country which was giving official encouragement to the development of the submarine. She was conducting experiments with the Gymnote, a small vessel of the diving type, and had under construction a much larger vessel to be operated on the same principle. This vessel was afterward called the Gustave Zédé, but she did not go into commission for some time, as her submerged control was found to be bad. One report of her trials states that, "with the committee of engineers on board, her performance in attempting to keep an even depth line was most erratic, and frequently a thirty-degree inclination was reached before the boat could be brought up. On one occasion she hit the bottom in ten fathoms with sufficient force to unseat the engineering experts."

The Gymnote was five feet ten inches in diameter amidships and fifty-nine feet ten inches in length. The Gustave Zédé was ten feet nine inches in diameter and one hundred forty-eight feet long. It is very difficult to secure sufficient metacentric height in a boat of the above proportions, which probably accounted largely for their erratic behavior when submerged.

In response to the United States Government's advertisement for designs of submarine boats, only three inventors submitted plans and specifications. These were Mr. George C. Baker, Mr. J. P. Holland, and myself. Mr. Baker submitted designs of a boat sixty feet in length and of about one hundred and twenty tons displacement. This vessel was expected to have a speed of about eight miles per hour. The method of submerged control and known characteristics were the same as have already been described in connection with his boat as built in 1892. Mr. Holland proposed to build a vessel eighty-five feet in length, eleven and one-half feet in diameter, of one hundred and sixty-eight tons submerged displacement, and of one hundred and fifty-four tons light displacement. This gave a surface "reserve of buoyancy" of only fourteen tons, or less than ten per cent. The method of control was by the use of vertical and horizontal rudders on the same principle as was used in his Fenian Ram, described above.

In 1897 Mr. Holland published in Cassier's Magazine an article on submarine navigation, giving some of his experiences with the Fenian Ram. This article explains very well the state of the art of submarine navigation in 1893. One of the early difficulties encountered was how to know the direction one was going when submerged. Referring to his experience in the Fenian Ram, Mr. Holland said:

"Experience with submarine boats had been so very limited up to 1881 that more difficulty in steering a straight course by compass while submerged than while moving on the surface was scarcely expected. The writer had no suspicion that his boat could not be steered perfectly until he had tried it after making about half a dozen preliminary dives to adjust the automatic apparatus. Having become doubtful of the reliability of the compass, he had it carefully compensated, and then made a trial submerged run in New York Harbor, heading the vessel toward a point which he knew was about twelve minutes' run distant.

"The boat dived at an inclination of about fifteen degrees, and it was noticed that when she again reached a horizontal position the compass needle swung around a complete circle and vibrated a good deal before coming to rest. The boat was then discovered to be about ninety degrees off her course. It was steered again in the proper direction, and then inclined upward at a sharp angle to find whether the action of the compass would be as erratic while rising as while running downward. One end of the needle dipped to the bottom of the cup when beginning the ascent, and remained there during the rise. When the boat approached a horizontal position, a few feet below the surface, the needle swung around as violently as it had done during the boat's descent, and then came to rest again at a point that indicated the boat to be far off the true course.