125 years ago, the Royal Navy entered a new world beneath the waves
Launched on 2 October 1901, Holland 1 was the first submarine commissioned by the Royal Navy and marked the beginning of a Submarine Service that continues today. Small, experimental and unlike almost anything the Navy had operated before, Holland 1 represented a fundamental change in naval warfare. Today, she is one of the most significant surviving vessels in the Royal Navy Museums collection.
History
At the end of the 19th century, submarines were developing rapidly, but the Royal Navy had been reluctant to embrace them. That position became increasingly difficult to maintain as other naval powers, particularly France, developed their own submarine forces.
The Admiralty turned to the designs of Irish-born engineer John Philip Holland, whose work had helped produce the United States Navy’s first commissioned submarine. An agreement was reached with the Electric Boat Company for five Holland-designed submarines to be built under licence by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness.
The project was highly secret. Holland 1’s first commanding officer, Lieutenant Forster Delafield Arnold-Forster, later recalled his attempts to find the new submarine:
“As I was to be her first captain, I was anxious to see the boat directly. I got to Barrow but found that nobody seemed to have heard of any submarine at all. Eventually I discovered her in a shed (labelled ‘yacht shed’ in large white letters) where she was being built in the utmost secrecy.
“Only selected trustworthy men were allowed inside, all frames and other parts made in the yard were marked ‘For Pontoon No.1’ and so she aroused no special interest in the busy workshops.”
The secrecy surrounding the project meant that even components produced elsewhere in the yard were disguised to conceal what was being built. But it wasn’t only the secrecy surrounding Holland 1 that surprised her first captain. It was the submarine herself:
“What surprised me most when I did find the boat was her small size. She was only 63 ft. long and was shaped like a very fat and stumpy cigar.”
What emerged from the “Yacht Shed” would help change naval warfare forever.
On 2 October 1901, Holland 1 was launched without ceremony. Her first dive took place in an enclosed basin on 20 March 1902, followed by sea trials from April as the Royal Navy explored what this radically different type of vessel could do. For the men tasked with operating her, this was an entirely new way of serving at sea.
Arnold-Forster remembered just how demanding the controls could be:
“The ingenious designer in New York evidently did not realise that the average naval officer has only two eyes and two hands, the little conning tower was simply plastered with wheels, levers, valves and gauges with which some superman was to fire torpedoes, dive and steer and do everything else at the same time.”
Inside this tiny experimental submarine, a handful of men were discovering what it meant to serve beneath the waves.
By September 1902, Holland 1 and another completed Holland boat had arrived at Portsmouth, forming part of the Navy’s first submarine flotilla. The new technology also brought new dangers. On 3 March 1903, an explosion aboard Holland 1 injured four men. The following year, Holland 1 came remarkably close to being drawn into an international crisis.
In October 1904, Russian warships travelling to the Far East during the Russo-Japanese War opened fire on British fishing vessels in the North Sea after apparently mistaking them for Japanese torpedo boats. Two British fishermen were killed in what became known as the Dogger Bank Incident. As tensions escalated, Holland 1 left Portsmouth with other British submarines on 24 October, with orders to attack the Russian fleet. Diplomacy intervened and the submarines were recalled before any engagement took place.
By this point, attitudes towards submarines were already changing. On 20 April 1904, First Sea Lord Vice Admiral Sir John Fisher wrote:
“I don’t think it is even faintly realised – the immense impending revolution which the submarines will effect as offensive weapons of war.”
Technology advanced rapidly, and within little more than a decade Holland 1 herself had been overtaken by newer generations of submarine. She was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1913. But Holland 1’s story was far from over.
While being towed towards the breakers, she encountered severe weather and sank near the Eddystone Lighthouse. Instead of being dismantled, the Royal Navy’s pioneering first submarine remained largely intact on the seabed.
Conservation
For almost 70 years, Holland 1 lay beneath the sea. Her wreck was located in 1981 and, in November 1982, she was raised from the seabed and brought into the care of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum.
The submarine that had begun her life hidden from view had survived almost seven decades beneath the sea. But bringing her back to the surface presented an extraordinary new challenge: how do you preserve a pioneering submarine after so long underwater?
Chloride salts had penetrated deep into Holland 1’s ironwork. Early treatment and protective coatings could not stop the deterioration and, by 1993, corrosion was causing serious damage.
A pioneering conservation programme followed. A huge tank was constructed around Holland 1 and, from 1995, she was immersed in a sodium carbonate solution. Over several years, the treatment helped draw damaging chloride ions from the metal.
But removing the salts was only part of the challenge. Holland 1 also needed an environment in which further corrosion could be controlled. A purpose-built dehumidified gallery was created to maintain carefully controlled conditions around the submarine, opening in 2001 during the centenary year of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.
Today
In 2026, Holland 1 reaches another remarkable milestone: 125 years since her launch.
From a secret project constructed inside a building labelled the “Yacht Shed” to one of the most significant vessels in Britain’s naval heritage, Holland 1 tells the story of the moment the Royal Navy began exploring a new world beneath the waves.
Today, you can come face to face with Holland 1 at Royal Navy Museums: Submarines in Gosport and discover the people, engineering and experimentation behind the beginnings of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.
Ready to go beneath the surface?
Make Royal Navy Museums: Submarines part of your next visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Cross Portsmouth Harbour to Gosport on our Waterbus, come face to face with Holland 1, step aboard HMS Alliance and discover what it took to live and serve beneath the waves.
Book your tickets online before you arrive and start discovering from the moment you get here.