A century of innovation

Sea Power, Feb 1999 by Hamilton, Robert A

Few will dispute that John P. Holland was a man of vision, a man whose inventions were the first step towards the first true submarine. But he seemed to predict doom for the company he helped to found in 1899 in a letter of resignation five years later: "The success of your company can never be as great as what I ardently desire for it."

Did Holland fail to envision a company whose products would help win two world wars? That ushered in the era of nuclear propulsion? That helped revolutionize shipbuilding techniques and has long set technological standards for the rest of the shipbuilding world? That even today, having weathered three major buildup and slowdown cycles, including the end of the Cold War, prepares to celebrate its centennial?

The company is Electric Boat (EB). In its first 100 years it has moved from blueprints drafted without aid of slide rule or calculator, to virtual reality computer simulations of sophisticated undersea craft that take many gigabytes of data to operate. As it reviews its first century, though, EB has not lost sight of its challenge for the next-preparing an undersea craft to meet the Navy's requirements in capability and cost.

"Celebrating 100 years for EB is something we should enjoy. We ought to savor it and look at the success of the products we have built and the hard work that has gone into it," said EB President John K. Welch. "But now, we are clearly focused on the future, not worrying about the past."

As part of General Dynamics (GD), EB has sister subsidiaries that build surface combatants and auxiliary ships. EB's engineering and design team also is working on next-generation aircraft carriers and amphibious ships.

"There are so many exciting possibilities under the GD Marine umbrella," Welch said. "I would like to think that 100 years from now we'll be the premier marine engineering company in the world, and I think we're pretty darned close to that right now."

The history of submarines goes back to Alexander the Great, who was said to have submerged in a glass diving bell. David Bushnell developed the Turtle in the Revolutionary War, just down the Connecticut coast from EB. By the late l9th century, a Swedish designer had built a steampowered submarine, though it could only travel 500 feet underwater.

"A machine as complicated as a submarine is not the creation of a single genius," said Holland's biographer, Richard K. Morris. But Holland, neither naval architect nor mechanical engineer, was responsible for major innovations: (a) using two means of propulsion, a gas engine surfaced and electric batteries submerged; (b) a fixed center of gravity below the boat, for stability; (c) the hull lines of a porpoise, not fully exploited until the USS Albacore (SS 569) decades later; (d) quick submergence; and (e) missile-firing capability.

"Though singly, his accomplishments might be open to argument, taken collectively there can be no doubt," Morris said, "John P. Holland was not only a mechanical genius, but he does indeed deserve the distinction of being named the father of the modern submarine."

Ironically, EB sprang out of a seeming disaster on the first submarine Holland, at Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport, N.J. After the Holland sank dockside on 13 October 1897, Holland beseeched the Electro-Dynamic Co. of Philadelphia to send someone to restore the equipment. Electro-Dynamic sent Frank T. Cable, who improved the design, and recruited investor Isaac L. Rice, president of the Electric Storage Battery Co. in Philadelphia, a master in patent law and marketing.

On 7 February 1899, Electric Boat Co. was formed, absorbing Holland's submarine company and the Electric Launch Co. of Bayonne, N.J. Rice served as the first president. Of 22 shipyards that would build submarines for the U.S. Navy, EB would be the longest-lived.

"The key to their success was their ability to bring so many different systems together," said Steve Finnegan, curator of the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Conn., just up the Thames River from EB. "They were the people who knew how to bring corporate components together to make the best end product."

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Navy Secretary John D. Long on 10 April 1898: "I think the Holland submarine boat should be purchased. Evidently she has in her great possibilities for harbor defense."

But Rice's public relations skills produced the first sale. When the Navy rejected the Holland, Rice took it to Washington, D.C., demonstrating the submarine to crowds lining the Potomac in early 1900, gaining support for the program. The Navy paid $150,000 for the Holland on 4 April 1900.

The Holland had a 1,500-mile range (40 miles submerged), could dive to 100 feet, and had a top speed of seven knots. Though rudimentary, the Holland proved its worth in war games four months after the Navy took delivery. Surfacing near the flagship of the "hostile" fleet, it signaled: "You're blown to atoms."

In its early days, EB built boats for a number of countries. Both Japan and Russia used its submarines in their war from 1904-05. England, France, Turkey, Venezuela, Sweden, Mexico, Norway, Denmark, and other countries were interested. EB established the New London Ship & Engine Co. in Groton in 1911 to manufacture diesel engines, but submarine production did not begin there until 1925, when it began construction on four submarines for Peru. Today, Groton is the center of its operations.