Holland One, the Royal Navy’s first submarine, has joined the ranks of Britain’s greatest engineering feats by becoming the latest recipient of an Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Heritage Award.
The sub, launched in 1901, was deemed ‘underhand, unfair and damned un-English’ by Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson, then Controller of the Navy, after the idea was brought to him. Nonetheless, the Royal Navy, recognising the vessel’s massive military potential, secretly placed an order with submarine pioneer John Philip Holland.
Ironically, Holland had originally received the financial backing needed to develop his submarines from the Irish Fenian Society, a forerunner of the IRA, who wanted to use the vessels to carry out hit and run terrorist attacks on the Royal Navy.
Holland’s great technological innovation was marrying the internal combustion engine with the electric motor and electric battery, all in one hydro-dynamic machine. This would set the standard for submarines across the world for decades to come.
Holland One had twelve years of experimental service before being decommissioned in 1913. However while being towed to the scrap yard it hit stormy weather and sank.
It remained at the bottom of the Channel for 68 years before the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport in Hampshire, working with Navy mine sweepers, discovered and salvaged the wreck in 1981. Leading the restoration efforts was Institution Member Ian Clarke, who made the award application. It is now on permanent display at the museum in Gosport.
Isobel Pollock, Deputy President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Chair of the Heritage Committee, said:
“Holland One’s remarkable story can easily overshadow the fact that this was the vessel that dragged the Royal Navy into the modern era.”
“With this award we want to not only recognise Holland One’s pivotal role in changing naval warfare forever, but also pay tribute to the tremendous restoration job that has saved this crucial part of British heritage for future generations.”
The award received extensive press coverage – the Institution appeared in the Times, the Daily Telegraph, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 1 South as well as over 200 local newspapers and news websites.
The next Heritage Award will be presented to the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich on 2 June 2011. If you would like to attend the presentation, please contact media@imeche.org.