GOING DEEP: JOHN P. HOLLAND AND THE INVENTION OF THE ATTACK SUBMARINE

摘要

Mr. Goldstone has written the "Book of Genesis" record of submarines in which John Holland is not Adam but certainly plays the part of Moses. For the most part, descriptions are clear enough for an uninformed reader, while being meaningful for the knowledgeable. The result is an intriguing story not just of the technical advances in the submarine-from Holland's first practical boat, the Fenian Ram in 1883, to his last, the second class of boat built for the U.S. Navy, the USS Octopus (SS-9), commissioned in 1905-but also of the machinations of Holland, his major competitor, Simon Lake, and the industrialists who backed them. While tracing developments and barriers in the creation of the first true submarines, the author spends a significant amount of his narrative on the economic and political activities of Holland's backers and nem-eses. Modern readers may be shocked at the chicanery, innuendo, intimidation, blatant falsehood, bribery, and collusion that were practiced by most-though never by Holland.