The ''Holland III'' was an early prototype

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

made by John Holland."The Fenian Model Holland III" - From "John Philip Holland (1841-1914) And His Submarines" fetched 20 September 2008
/ref> The 16-foot 1-ton model was a scaled-down version of the ''

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 ...

'' intended for experiments to help him improve navigation.Holland III, ''militaryhonors.sid-hill.us''
/ref> In a dispute over money, the prototype was stolen from its slip in the

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals at Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jers ...

Basin, on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Fenian Brotherhood The Fenian Brotherhood () was an Irish republican organisation founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. It was a precursor to Clan na Gael, a sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). M ...

in November, 1883. The theft also included the ''Fenian Ram'', a successful submarine they had commissioned. The Fenian Brotherhood stole away with the two submarines up the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The ''Fenian Ram'' was tied to their boat, and the ''Holland III'' was tied to the ''Ram''. Near Whitestone Point in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

, the ''Holland III'' started to take on water through her turret, causing her to slow down, stretching and subsequently breaking the rope between it and the ''Fenian Ram''. The prototype soon sank in 110 feet of water, and has not been recovered, despite efforts, most recently by the

National Underwater and Marine Agency The National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) is a private non-profit organization in the United States founded in 1979. Originally it was a fictional US government organization in the novels of author Clive Cussler. Cussler later created and, ...

. The Fenians had been planning to use it to fight

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

for the independence of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

References

19th-century submarines of the United States Irish-American history John Philip Holland Shipwrecks of the East River {{submarine-stub

See also

References