TIL: Fenian Ram, the world’s first workable submarine was designed by Irishman John Holland.

11 comments
  1. *’At one point during …development there was a dispute about money with the Fenians, and…they stole the sub and towed it to Connecticut.’*

  2. While they were submarines before this. The modern design of them is based off of this sub. He then sold designs to the U.S./Japan and the UK

  3. There’s a nice monument for him inside the grounds of Scholars Townhouse in Drogheda, Co. Louth. I believe he taught in the old school there before emigrating to America.

  4. Interestingly enough, the Irish have a (sometimes tenuous) link to the modern nuclear submarine in a lot of ways.

    Aside from John Holland, you have Ernest Walton who first “split the atom” with John Cockcroft for the reactor

    You have Charles Parsons who designed the first compound steam turbine for the propulsion

    And finally (and most tenuously) George Boole, who invented Boolean logic for the computer controls and guidance systems,

    Interesting topic

Leave a Reply