The Saga of the
SUBMARINE
Page 4
Surface ships were now driven with steam; why not the submarine? But the use of fire to heat the water and steam was impossible owing to the limited air supply of a submerged submarine. Today, the atomic reactor has eliminated this drawback to a heat source and submarines are driven by steam. But the internal combustion engine was the submarine’s first source of real power.
This engine offered speed and comparative endurance on the surface, but its deadly carbon monoxide exhaust fumes and high oxygen consumption were obstacles to life beneath the surface. By 1900, the storage battery was in use. An Irish-American, John Holland, was the first to conceive of employing the electric and the internal combustion engine to power a submarine. Holland and another American, Simon Lake, became the first modern submarine designers. They began their experiments in the last decades of the nineteenth century, HoIIand in the 1870s and Lake in the 1890s.
Holland built nine submarines, one under Navy contract, before the Navy would accept one. The Navy also considered but decided not to accept Lake’s Argonaut, an advancement on his Argonaut, Jr.
Lake’s Argonaut, Jr., had wheels with which to crawl along shallow bottoms and air locks to permit divers to enter and leave the wooden hulk while it was submerged.
Launch of the USS Holland May 17,1897
In 1900, Holland sold the Navy its first submarine, USS Holland. Holland had the “amazing speed” of seven knots surfaced, made possible by her 45-horsepower internal combustion engine, and an endurance of several hours submerged when running on rechargeable storage batteries.
Holland was armed with three Whitehead torpedoes and a bow gun that recessed into the bow. The depth of the Whitehead torpedoes’ run was controlled by a pressure-sensitive piston. Its stability was controlled by a pendulum, and its direction by a gyroscope. Many modern torpedoes are much the same.
The first Navy Submariners!
In the center of the picture is Lt. Harry H. Caldwell, Commanding Officer.
Starting at the lower left of the picture and going clockwise are; William H. Reader, Chief Gunner's mate;
Augustus Gumpert, Gunner's mate; Harry Wahab, Gunner's mate First Class; O. Swanson, Gunner's mate First Class;
Gunner, Owen Hill; W. Hall, Electrician's mate Second Class; Arthur Callahan, Gunner's mate Second Class;
Barnett Bowie, Chief Machinist's Mate.
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- 2007
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