TV Channel PBS America

John Philip Holland: Inventor of the Submarine







He’s the visionary behind today’s submarines. Jotting down his first designs in the 1860s, he imagined a world where they would act as a deterrent against more powerful nations, and play a major part in underwater research.

Born in Co. Clare in Ireland in 1841, John Philip Holland’s plans were put into production after he immigrated to America in 1873. Funded by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, in the early 1880’s The Fenian Ram was born.