Fenian Ram

''Fenian Ram'' is a submarine designed by John Philip Holland for use by the Fenian Brotherhood, the American counterpart to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, against the British. The Fenian Ram was the world’s first practical submarine, in that it was able to run on its own power using its 2-cylinder Brayton oil engine and dive & submerge successfully. The ''Ram'''s construction and launching in 1881 by the Delamater Iron Company in New York was funded by the Fenians' Skirmishing Fund. Officially ''Holland Boat No. II'', the role of the Fenians in its funding led the New York Sun newspaper to name the vessel the ''Fenian Ram''.

Design

''Fenian Ram'''s design was partly modelled on the Whitehead torpedo, and it had similar cruciform control fins near the tail. The boat did not simply take on ballast until she sank like other contemporary submarines; she maintained a slightly positive buoyancy, and tilted her horizontal planes so that her forward motion forced her under.

''Fenian Ram'' was armed with a nine-inch pneumatic gun some eleven feet long, mounted along the boat's centerline and firing forward out of her bow. It operated like modern submarine torpedo tubes: a watertight bow cap was normally kept shut, allowing the six-foot-long dynamite-filled steel projectiles to be loaded into the tube from the interior of the submarine. The inner door was then shut and the outer door opened by a remote mechanism. Finally, air was used to shoot the projectile out of the tube. To reload, the outer door was again shut and the water in the tube was blown into the surrounding ballast tank by more compressed air. It was powered by a Brayton piston engine.

Ship history

The submarine on display at the Paterson Museum, New Jersey (2016)
During extensive trials, Holland made numerous dives and test-fired the gun using dummy projectiles. However, due to funding disputes within the IRB and disagreement over payments from the IRB to Holland, the IRB stole '' Fenian Ram'' and the ''Holland III'' prototype in November 1883.Davies, R. ''Nautilus: The Story of Man Under the Sea''. Naval Institute Press. 1995. . Although ''Holland III'' accidentally sank in the East River, the Fenians took the ''Fenian Ram'' to New Haven, Connecticut, but discovered that no one knew how to operate it. Holland refused to help. Unable to use or sell the boat, the Brotherhood had the ''Ram'' hauled into a shed on the Mill River.

In 1916, ''Fenian Ram'' was exhibited in Madison Square Garden to raise funds for victims of the Easter Rising. Afterwards, she was moved to Clason Point Military Academy, Bronx, NY. In 1927, the Academy relocated to Long Island and the hull was sold for scrap. Prior to demolition, Irish-American activist Harry Cunningham intervened and purchased the ''Fenian Ram'' from the junkyard in order to preserve it as a symbol of Irish-American ingenuity. In September, 1927, Cunningham sold the submarine to Edward Browne of Paterson, NJ, who offered the vessel to the City of Paterson as a memorial to Holland's work.“Special Meeting of Park Board on the Fenian Ram: Browne Makes Formal Application for a Location in Westside Park”, The Paterson News, 16 September 1927. Today, she can still be seen at the Paterson Museum.

References

Bibliography

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External links

The John Holland Website


Photos of John Holland's Submarine Fenian Ram at the Paterson Museum in Paterson, NJ

Paterson Museum
The Paterson Museum Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenian Ram
1881 ships
Irish-American history
Irish Republican Brotherhood
John Philip Holland
Museum ships in New Jersey
Naval ships built in the United States for export
Military and war museums in New Jersey
Museums in Passaic County, New Jersey
History of Paterson, New Jersey
19th-century submarines of the United States
19th-century submarines