USS Holland (SS-1) - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

The work was done at (Ret.) Navy Lieutenant Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard of Elizabeth, New Jersey for John Holland's company, then known as the Holland Torpedo Boat Company. The craft was built under the supervision of John Holland, who designed the vessel and her details. The keel to this craft was laid at Nixon's Crescent Shipyard with both men present. The two men worked together using many of John Holland's proven concepts and patents to make the submarine a reality, each man complementing the other's contributions to the development of the modern submarine.

Holland VI included many features that submarines of the early 20th century would exhibit, albeit in later, more advanced forms. She had both an internal combustion engine for running on the surface, and an electric motor for submerged operation. She had a reloadable torpedo tube and a deck gun (a pneumatic dynamite gun). There was a conning tower from which the boat and her weapons could be directed. Finally, she had all the necessary ballast and trim tanks to make precise changes in depth and attitude underwater.