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Meet the American who launched modern submarines, John Philip Holland, 'brilliant' self-taught engineer
John Philip Holland’s brilliance transcended time, distance — and depth.
Widely proclaimed “the father of the modern submarine,” Holland was born in Ireland and moved to the United States as a young man with the audacious idea of building a “submergible torpedo boat” that could fight silently beneath the waves.
He succeeded in remaking maritime history despite no formal mechanical, engineering or military training.
“He was a brilliant and instinctive engineer,” Holland biographer Lawrence Goldstone told Fox News Digital.
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Goldstone chronicled Holland’s unfathomable story in his 2017 book, “Going Deep: John Philip Holland and The Invention of the Attack Submarine.”
“He figured out how to use the principals of undersea navigation to create a weapon that totally changed naval warfare,” said Goldstone.
John Philip Holland in one of his constructed submarines, Published by “Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung,” 1905. (W.H. Rau, ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
The USS Holland (SS-1), the first U.S. Navy submarine, was commissioned on Oct. 12, 1900.
The state-of-the-art American vessel, Holland’s design, inspired a revolution in military technology.
“France, Japan and Britain each … pursued their own design based on the early Holland vessels,” reports the U.K.’s Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of Wight.
“He was a brilliant and instinctive engineer.”
The first British submarine, HMS Holland 1, was commissioned in 1901.
The museum adds, “Germany’s own experiments had not been successful, and they decided to experiment with a Holland vessel.”
The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Tuscon (SSN 770) at sea. “Father of the modern submarine” John Philip Holland pioneered the principals of submarine design still used today to build America’s modern nuclear-powered submarine fleet. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adam K. Thomas/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
Holland became a U.S. citizen but would achieve neither fame nor fortune in the land of opportunity.
His intellect, it turned out, faced one challenge too deep to overcome.
“Holland was naive,” said Goldstone.
Isaac Rice, an equally brilliant but “ruthless” electric-automobile pioneer, became a business partner and outmaneuvered the inventor to gain control of J.P. Holland Torpedo Boat Co. and his intellectual property.
Rice transformed Holland’s business into Electric Boat. Now a division of General Dynamics, Electric Boat has built much of the U.S. Navy submarine fleet, as well as boats for many other nations, for nearly 125 years.
USS Holland (SS-1) in drydock, circa 1900, probably soon after she entered Navy service. (Disclaimer: “Use of released U.S. Navy imagery does not constitute product or organizational endorsement of any kind by the U.S. Navy.”) (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command)
Holland died penniless and unknown.
“Genius is not transportable,” lamented Goldstone.
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When Holland’s invention, he said, “got to the point that he had to turn it into a practical product, not a practical machine but a practical product, he was totally out of his depth.”
Submersible mechanical duck
John Philip Holland was born in Liscannor, County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, on Feb. 24, 1841.
The date of his birth is disputed.
Birthplace of John P. Holland at Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland. (Courtesy Clare County Library)
His father John Holland, a lighthouse keeper and coastguardsman, and his mother, Mary (Scanlan) Holland, were both native Irish speakers. It appears the submarine pioneer was a teenager before he learned English.
Ireland had suffered under British rule for centuries.
“He considered the use of the submarine to further the cause of Irish Independence.”
Holland’s father reportedly died when the future inventor was a young boy. He was just four years old when famine struck Ireland. Millions of Irish died or fled overseas.
Holland was stricken with poor eyesight due to malnourishment, according to the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
He was, by all accounts, an Irish patriot.
“As a youth, he considered the use of the submarine to further the cause of Irish Independence,” reports the U.S. Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command.
The Turtle was the world’s first submarine known to be used in combat. It was built in 1775 by David Bushnell (1742-1824) and used against the British in 1776. Image from 1787. (Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Holland attended Christian Brothers School in Limerick and later became a mathematics and music teacher at the Christian Brothers convent in Drogheda, Co. Louth, north of Dublin.
“It was during his residence at Christian Brothers that he designed the submersible mechanical duck,” according to the website of Scholars Townhouse Hotel, located in Holland’s former convent.
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The duck “could walk around the garden, swim, dive underwater and then resurface.”
The source of Holland’s mechanical aptitude remains unknown even to biographer Goldstone.
Friends of Hunley archeological technician Chris Ohm straightens the hair on the facial reconstruction of Arnold Beckner, a crew member of the H.L. Hunley, before a press conference, April 16, 2004, in Charleston, South Carolina. The Hunley is a Civil War submarine that sunk in 1864 while on a mission to torpedo a Union ship in Charleston. It was raised in 2000. (Stephen Morton/Getty Images)
What is certain is that Holland grew up in an era bursting with innovation and filled with stories of underseas adventure.
Connecticut colonist David Bushnell built the Turtle, a primitive one-man submersible, in 1775; it was used unsuccessfully to attack the HMS Eagle in New York Harbor in 1776.
Submarine warfare gained international attention again during the American Civil War. The confederate vessel H.L. Hunley torpedoed and sunk the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor.
It is the first known sinking of an enemy vessel by a submersible in the history of warfare.
There was no glory to celebrate. The Hunley sunk, too. Its wreckage and the remains of its crew were discovered only in 1995.
Jules Verne and his famous works — French writer 1828-1905. Author of “L’Ile Mysterieuse” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” (Culture Club/Getty Images)
Holland was further inspired by fiction.
“In 1870, Jules Verne published a novel ‘20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,’” the Clare County Library reports in its history of the beloved native son.
“An excited Holland persisted in turning a dream into reality.”
‘Fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman’
Holland moved to the United States in 1873, first to Boston and then to Paterson, New Jersey.
He submitted his first submarine designs to the U.S. Navy in 1875.
They were turned down as unworkable.
Fenian Ram submarine, 1881, U.S., drawing. The Fenian Ram was built by Irish-American submarine pioneer John Philip Holland and funded by Irish patriots. Holland later designed the first commissioned U.S. Navy submarine, the USS Holland (SS-1). (DeAgostini/Getty Images)
“A fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman,” one member of top Navy brass reportedly said.
Holland found benefactors in like-minded Irishmen.
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“The American Fenian Society, a group of Irish patriots who hoped to undermine England’s naval power and gain independence for Ireland, commissioned Holland to build a submarine,” reports The Irish American Museum of Washington, D.C.
His first “submergible” — as he called the technology — sank during testing in the Passaic River.
His second model, dubbed the Fenian Ram, successfully launched in New York City in 1881.
John Philip Holland received the patent for his submarine design, the “submergible torpedo boat,” on April 12, 1892. The inventor was born in Ireland but stated that he was a “citizen of the United States” when he filed the patent application on Dec. 5, 1889. (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office/Public Domain)
“He frightened fishermen and small boating parties on Long Island Sound by sudden appearances from beneath the waves; and apparently thoroughly enjoyed himself with his first real submarine,” writes the U.S. Naval Institute.
“A full-scale vessel, the Fenian Ram had many of the features we associate with modern submarines,” notes the Irish American Museum.
“He frightened fishermen and small boating parties on Long Island Sound by sudden appearances from beneath the waves.”
Among them: a tubular cigar shape and dual power — electricity for underwater, internal combustion for operating on the surface, much like non-nuclear subs still employ today.
The Fenian Ram was armed with torpedoes and fitted with a Holland innovation that transformed submarine technology forever: rudder planes that allowed the boat to dive and rise in the water.
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Top brass was still not impressed.
Holland spent nearly two decades working on improvements. In 1897, he launched “the first submarine with the power to run submerged for any considerable distance,” according to CHIPS, the Department of the Navy’s information technology magazine.
Naval Academy Midshipmen aboard the USS Holland (SS-1), the first official U.S. Navy submarine, commissioned in 1900. The Holland spent much of his service training Midshipmen for the future of submarine warfare. Date of image unknown. (Disclaimer: “Use of released U.S. Navy imagery does not constitute product or organizational endorsement of any kind by the U.S. Navy.”) (U.S. Navy photo courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command)
By this time, he had lost the support of the Fenian brotherhood.
A new business partner emerged: Isaac Rice, a pioneer in electric automobiles. Among other successes, he had filled the streets of New York City with electric taxicabs, before the internal combustion vehicles replaced those fueled by battery.
Their sixth prototype proved a triumph.
“It was 53 feet long and driven by a 45 h.p. gas engine for surface travel and a 45 h.p. gas engine for underwater travel,” reports the Clare County Library.
Holland submarine launch and christening ceremony at the Crescent Shipyard, Elizabethport, New Jersey, May 17, 1897. Her sponsor, Mrs. Lawrence, is visible beyond Holland’s bow. It was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1900 and commissioned the USS Holland (SS-1), the first official U.S. submarine, that year. (Disclaimer: “Use of released U.S. Navy imagery does not constitute product or organizational endorsement of any kind by the U.S. Navy.”) (U.S. Navy photo courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command)
“It carried a crew of 15 and had a torpedo tube in the bow. It took its first dive on St. Patrick’s Day, 1898, in New York Harbor and was acclaimed a success.”
The Navy purchased what is now known as the USS Holland (SS-1) on April 11, 1900, for $150,000, about half the cost to build it.
The Holland was commissioned as the first U.S. Navy submarine on October 12.
“Holland had an awareness that he needed a business partner … he was unaware of how ruthless Rice could be.”
Holland would enjoy success in name only. Rice controlled the business, and the profits.
“Isaac Rice was ruthless, but also brilliant in his own way,” said Goldstone. “Holland had an awareness that he needed a business partner … He was unaware of how ruthless Rice could be.”
‘Father of the modern submarine’
John Philip Holland died on Aug. 12, 1914, after more than a month battling pneumonia, at his home on 39 Newton St. in Newark, New Jersey.
He was 73 years old.
John Philip Holland was born in Ireland in 1841, moved to New Jersey in 1873 and proved a revolutionary global figure in naval submarine design. (Courtesy The Paterson Museum)
Holland is buried at Holy Selpuchre Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.
“For 61 years, he lay in an unmarked grave until public attention was focused on the historical oversight in 1975 and a memorial headstone was erected,” reports the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
“For 61 years, he lay in an unmarked grave until public attention was focused on the historical oversight.”
“Years later, another was erected in its place, and the original stone was transferred to his hometown of Liscannor and dedicated by the U.S. Navy Submarine Force.”
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“Father of the modern submarine,” says his gravestone, beneath a relief replicating the memorable picture of Holland in his bowler hat sticking his head out of the top of his submarine and gazing off to his left.
“Although he was interested in submarines, Mr. Holland was opposed to war,” The New York Times wrote in a brief obituary the next day. “His idea of submarines was to incapacitate war ships and not to destroy them and kill the men on them.”
The world had other ideas.
American inventor John Philip Holland (1841-1914), circa 1880. His submarine the USS Holland (SS-1) was commissioned by the U.S. Navy. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Two weeks before he died, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia — plunging Europe into World War I.
Five weeks after his death, on September 22, German submarine U-9 sank three British battle cruisers in less than an hour, killing 1,400 men.
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“It’s the battle that changed naval warfare forever,” said Goldstone, while noting that the man who made such incredible submarine power possible had just “died in obscurity.”
In addition to helping found, if not profit from, Electric Boat, Holland today enjoys acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Paterson Museum of New Jersey houses a treasure trove of Holland information and artifacts.
A model of the first ever British submarine, the Holland No. 1 (named after inventor John Philip Holland) on display in Trafalgar Square, London, a year after the launch of the actual vessel in 1901. (London Stereoscopic Company/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
“He really changed the navies of the world and the way naval warfare developed,” museum director Giacomo DeStefano told Fox News Digital.
A plaque was erected in Liscannor commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death in 1964.
Castle Street in his hometown has been renamed Holland Street in his honor.
He’s also the namesake of the John P. Holland Charter School in Woodland Park, New Jersey, and the John P. Holland Centre in Liscannor.
To read more stories in this unique “Meet the American Who…” series from Fox News Digital, click here.
He’s been immortalized in statue in Drogheda Town, County Louth, where he lived in the Christian Brothers monastery as a young man.
He’s also remembered and lamented in song in his homeland.
John Philip Holland is credited as the inventor of the modern submarine. Shown here in the hatch of one of his early submarines, circa 1900, and with a modern U.S. submarine in 2010. (W.H. Rau/ullstein bild and by Specialist 3rd Class Adam K. Thomas/U.S. Navy, both via Getty Images)
“In the year of 1914, the year of the Great War/A death appeared in the papers, it was read both near and far,” concludes the lyrics to “John Philip Holland,” sung to a traditional Irish tune.
“That man he died in poverty, but he did realize his dream/He was John Philip Holland who invented the submarine.”
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The provocative painting seemed like an authentic work by Andy Warhol, depicting a nude man and woman gazing at each other with colorful shading around their bodies.
But the piece was a well-disguised counterfeit, among more than 200 fakes of works by artists like Banksy, Picasso and the Native American painter Fritz Scholder, which sold for a total of more than $2 million. Many of the works were made by an artist in Poland, and commissioned by a father and daughter living in New Jersey.
On Tuesday, the father and daughter, Erwin Bankowski and Karolina Bankowska, pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Brooklyn to running a scheme to sell the counterfeit works.
The duo “painted themselves as purveyors of fine art while selling lies on canvas to unsuspecting collectors,” Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement.
Federal guidelines call for a prison sentence of 33 to 41 months for each defendant. Both Mr. Bankowski and Mr. Bankowska are citizens of Poland and face deportation after serving their sentences. They are set to be sentenced on Aug. 5.
Todd Spodek, a lawyer for Ms. Bankowska, 26, said his client had accepted responsibility for her crimes. Jeffrey Chabrowe, a lawyer for Mr. Bankowski, 50, said his client also accepted responsibility and had “made a terrible decision to support his family.”
Counterfeit art schemes date back thousands of years. Many forgers in recent decades have pulled off their operations by faking a work’s provenance, or documented ownership history, which elite art collectors check to determine authenticity.
Famous art forgers include Wolfgang Beltracchi, a German man who says he painted in the style of more than 100 artists, and Mark Landis, who has donated numerous fakes to dozens of museums. Two art forgery rings in Thunder Bay, Ontario, manufactured thousands of fake paintings presented as works by Norval Morrisseau, one of Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous artists.
Mr. Bankowski and Ms. Bankowska went to great lengths to conceal their efforts. In addition to creating the fake provenances, sometimes by using forged stamps from art galleries, they told buyers that the pieces were from art galleries that had since closed, prosecutors said. That made it harder for buyers to verify that the pieces were real.
The pair’s collection included splotchy pieces, often with strong political overtones, that were sold to reputable galleries and auction houses around the United States. One fake of a work by Banksy, the anonymous British street artist, that protested the Iraq War sold for $2,000. A knockoff of a painting by Raimonds Staprans, a Latvian American visual artist who died in January, sold for $60,000.
Mr. Bankowski and Ms. Bankowska also sold works that they claimed were made by Native American artists, earning a rarely used federal charge: the misrepresentation of Indian goods and services. One of the counterfeits was a fake of a landscape by Richard Mayhew, a painter of Black and Native American heritage; it sold for $160,000, prosecutors said.
Mr. Spodek, who has represented many people accused of elaborate scams, said his clients had taken great care to ensure the knockoffs looked authentic. He said the replicas that the father and daughter commissioned were “identical” to the originals.
“It’s not just selling on eBay,” Mr. Spodek said.
Food News
If it closes, the nearest 99 Restaurant locations to Boston will be in Revere and Quincy.
A beloved New England chain restaurant’s last Boston location may close as developers eye the lot around it for future apartments at Charlestown’s Bunker Hill Mall.
Universal Hub first reported the news that the 99 Restaurant on Austin Street could shutter as part of a proposal to replace much of the site with a six-story, 240-unit apartment complex.
A spokesperson for the restaurant said the 99 has been at its 31 Austin St. location for 33 years.
“We are aware that the owners of Bunker Hill Mall property are considering a redevelopment of the entire site, and as such, we are exploring our options to remain in this community far into the future,” a spokesperson said. “We will continue to serve our loyal guests in our current location as long as our lease remains in place.”
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The property owner, New England Development, originally proposed a plan in 2021 that would build apartments around the 99 in a U-shape design, according to previous documents and members of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council who spoke to Boston.com. But the neighborhood council development chair Nancy Johnson said the community had a hard time envisioning that design.
Since then, a key zoning change has reshaped the project. In late 2023, the Boston Planning Department changed the Bunker Hill Mall site’s zoning from neighborhood shopping to mixed-use, clearing the way for residential builds. New England Development now proposes replacing the 99 entirely, with construction to be finished by 2028.
In a statement, New England Development said the restaurant “will remain in operation through at least the end of 2026.”
“The residential development, which adheres to zoning, will provide needed housing, and also complement and support the existing grocery and commercial uses with no reduction in parking for those businesses,” the statement read.
In a March meeting, some public comments opposed the project because of the likely shuttering of the 99.
“The 99 is one of the few family-friendly restaurants in Charlestown,” said one commenter. “We have celebrated numerous end-of-season sports events there. We need these kind of community spaces in Charlestown.”
Residents also raised broader concerns about the development, including parking and the potential loss of retail in addition to the 99. It isn’t immediately clear which stores will stay. A draft project impact report filed this year indicates redevelopment would only be considered after the “expiration of long-term retail leases.”
But along with zoning changes, Boston’s planning department approved a modification to the urban renewal plan to allow for the residential build. Johnson said the community is worried it could mean less retail stores at the site, which is the opposite of what the community wants.
The Bunker Hill Mall currently includes a Whole Foods, CVS, an Ace Hardware, and other stores. The 99 and a Dunkin’ are the last remaining restaurant spaces on site — the 99 being the last full-service option. The mall previously housed a Papa Gino’s and a Friendly’s.
The Charlestown Neighborhood Council expressed frustration mostly with the Boston Planning & Development Agency over the lack of a community process during the 2023 zoning change and a subsequent update to the site’s urban renewal plan.
“We want our neighbors and other residents to have good, affordable housing that’s safe and well-made,” Johnson said. “But you have to plan for the future, and a neighborhood is going to need retail spaces.”
The 99’s long history in Charlestown includes a 1995 shooting that killed four people. More recently, the chain has maintained a loyal following: It topped a Boston.com reader poll in 2020 and drew a wave of praise from readers in 2024 reacting to a Reddit post declaring the chain was underrated.
If the Charlestown location ultimately closes at the Bunker Hill Mall site, the closest 99 locations to Boston proper would be in Revere and Quincy.
A judge Tuesday sentenced the last of three defendants in the fatal 2024 stabbing of a mentally ill man at an abandoned Pittsburgh house.
Carlena Wells, 20, was sentenced to 2½ to 5 years in prison on a conspiracy to commit aggravated assault charge in the March 2024 death of Marc Kovach, 37.
Police said Kovach, who was schizophrenic, was beaten and stabbed, then his corpse was hidden under the porch of an empty West End house.
Attorney Thomas N. Farrell, who represented Wells, said his client is autistic. He asked Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Simquita R. Bridges to help rehabilitate Wells by sending her to a group home with around-the-clock care.
Prosecutors pushed back.
“Her role was admittedly less than anybody else’s but that doesn’t change the fact that a family is left without a son,” Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney John Fitzgerald said.
While Bridges opted for incarceration, the victim’s older sister said the three people involved in the killing did not face adequate justice.
“Even if she did not kill my brother, she stood there and watched and did nothing,” Misty Kovach, 46, of Port Vue, said while speaking during the sentencing. She criticized the defendants’ sentences.
Dominic Johnson, now 21, Wells’ boyfriend at the time of the attack, negotiated a guilty plea in April 2025 to third-degree murder and conspiracy, according to police and court records. Bridges sentenced him to 13 to 26 years in prison.
Just three months later, Logan Smetanka, also now 21, negotiated a guilty plea on conspiracy to commit third-degree murder, court records show. Bridges sentenced him to 4 to 8 years in prison.
Attorneys for both men declined comment Tuesday.
Police initially said the crime unfolded on March 16, 2024, when Johnson was hanging out with Kovach in a home on Steuben Street. Johnson attacked Kovach for touching Wells, according to a criminal complaint.
At least two witnesses whom police did not identify in court records told authorities they were present during the attack.
One witness told police that Johnson and Wells were “stomping” on Kovach at the house, the complaint said. Investigators said they were told by a witness that Johnson and Smetanka knocked Kovach unconscious. Johnson then dragged an unconscious Kovach toward the porch of the house, according to the complaint.
Pittsburgh police were dispatched to Steuben Street five days after the crime when someone called 911 to report a body. Responding officers found Kovach dead in a dried pool of blood under the front porch of the home, the complaint said.
He had been stabbed multiple times in the abdomen. Kovach was lying face-up on the ground, with a black jacket covering his chest.
Misty Kovach told TribLive Tuesday that her younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia after he started growing increasingly paranoid while studying at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Smoking marijuana appeared to exacerbate his mental health issues, she said. Marc Kovach, one of three children, was involuntarily committed to a hospital for mental health treatment at least once, his sister said.
Misty Kovach said she helped her brother get an apartment in Glassport. The family, however, did not know where he was living at the time of his death.
Farrell, Wells’ attorney, told the judge his client “had a rough life, a very difficult life.”
Wells herself briefly apologized to Kovach’s family.
“I just want to say I do feel remorseful for what I’ve done,” Wells said. “I’m just sorry.”
“My brother was mentally ill and we really didn’t figure that out until a couple years ago,” Misty Kovach said on the witness stand. “He also had a rough life. But he did not hurt people. That’s not an excuse.”
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