On 11 April 1900, the United States purchased one of a series of Irish émigré John P. Holland's experimental submarines, the Holland VI, for $150,000. The boat by this time had been in the water for three years undergoing trials and modifications. Commissioned on 12 October 1900 as the USS Holland, and later designated SS-1, she had a short service life of seven years, before being decommissioned on 21 November 1910. The Holland is pictured here at Greenpoint, Long Island, in 1899 in her final form as accepted by the Navy. Her two masts would fold down while she ran submerged. There was no periscope; the commander had to porpoise the boat for vision above water.
Her life after decommissioning is a sad tale. The sub was sold for $1,066.50 on 18 June 1913 and languished for two years in a Delaware River backwater. In June 1915, she was hauled out and placed on a railcar bound for a scrapyard. Gutted and, according to one newspaper account, "a mockery of the vessel she once was," in early 1916 she was instead moved to the Commercial Museum in Philadelphia where, in a temporary reprieve, she was displayed. An original crew member, learning of her imminent demise, appealed to the Navy Department and won a brief ten-day stay. His appeal to the New York Times resulted in Dr. Peter J. Gibbons and his son purchasing the sub for $350. They in turn offered her to the city with the best claim. Less than two weeks later, the Holland was awarded a New York organization.
On the 16th anniversary of her commissioning, the sub was escorted from the museum by Philadelphia's mayor, city officials, the commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and 350 Navy personnel. Once in New York, she was displayed at the unsuccessful New York International Exposition in the Bronx, which by 1924 had become known as Starlight Park. The park closed in 1930, but the sub remained on the grounds until at least 1932. Sometime after the park closed, the Holland was finally purchased for $100 and cut up on the site for scrap.
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