In 1881, John Holland designed and had built at the Delamater Iron Company in Manhattan a working submarine. Funded by the Fenian Brotherhood and intended to sink British shipping, the submarines was in all reepcts successful, notwithstanding that it never fulfilled the bellicose intent it’s backers. Holland’s invention plays a central role in Antione Vanner’s latest nautical thriller, Britannia’s Shark.  Holland’s remarkable submarine, Holland Boat No. II,  often called the Fenian Ram, is on display along with an earlier design, Holland Boat No. 1, at the Paterson Museum, in Paterson, NJ.

Recently another, notably less successful submarine went on display at the Gilpin County Historical Society Museum  in Central City, Colorado.  Called the “Mountain Submarine” the craft was raised from the depths of Missouri Lake, a frigid body of water 9,000 feet high in the mountains near Central City, where it sank on its maiden voyage in 1898.  The submarine was designed and built by Rufus T. Owen, a mining engineer.  John Holland, by comparison was an Irish school teacher. Safe to say Rufus Owen was no John Holland. His submarine sank before he could attempt the first test dive. Based on the appearance of the wood framed, zinc covered craft, he was proablaby lucky that it did.  Thanks to Dave Shirlaw for passing along the news.

A submarine found in the mountains? Exhibit shows oddity