New Suffolk's legacy as America's first submarine base

It's in an empty lot at the end of New Suffolk Avenue-Main Street in New Suffolk, along a small stretch of beachfront on Cutchogue Harbor.

A historic marker marks the spot.

This quaint patch of seldom-visited Long Island, sandwiched between Great Peconic Bay and Little Peconic Bay, is to the history of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force — the "Silent Service" — what the Wright Brothers and the windblown sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, are to the world of aviation.

The birthplace of where imagination became reality.

It was here in 1899 that an Irish immigrant lay priest and inventor named John Philip Holland came to New Suffolk to test his submarines, then called torpedo boats.

For six years, from 1899 to 1905, the site was home to the Holland Torpedo Boat Company and the Holland Torpedo Boat Station, the first submarine base in America.

It was during this time that Holland tested a series of seven submarine prototypes. And, it was during this time that the Holland Torpedo Boat merged with the Electric Boat Company, the firm later moving to Groton, Connecticut, where it eventually became General Dynamics Electric Boat — today, a leading-edge builder of nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S. Navy.

"John Holland’s importance to the history of submarine development can be measured by the fact that he is almost universally attributed as ‘The father of the modern submarine,’ " Meghan Rathbun, managing director of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, said, noting the silent service can "directly pinpoint" its creation to the Navy’s decision to purchase the 64-foot Holland VI submersible for a staggering $150,000 on April 11, 1900.

The date is now considered the official birth date of the Submarine Force and is celebrated annually by the Navy as Submarine Day. The Holland VI became the first submarine commissioned in U.S. Naval history when it was designated the USS Holland (SS-1) on Oct. 12, 1900.

"Few people realized that this vessel would be the first in a long line of innovative and technically sophisticated ships that would launch a new era in our national defense," then-President Bill Clinton said in a 100th anniversary proclamation in October 2000.

As Southold Town Historian Amy Folk said: "In terms of naval history, it certainly is important ... But, for us, it’s another one of those big steps in the history of our country that happened here — and people don’t realize all history starts at the grassroots level like this."

Historic legacy of submarines

It is believed submersible warfare traces its roots to divers clearing underwater obstacles during the Peloponnesian War and the Battle of Syracuse in 413 B.C. The philosopher Aristotle noted Alexander the Great employed divers during the Siege of Tyre in 332 B.C.

An Englishman, William Bourne, turned concepts into possibilities with a prototype submarine design in the Middle Ages, while, after more than a century of developments in Europe, American David Bushnell introduced the first American military use submarine in 1776 — a hand-powered, propeller-driven, egg-shaped wooden submersible christened the Turtle.

But it was Jules Verne who introduced the idea of deep-depth ocean-faring powered submarines to a worldwide audience with publication of his groundbreaking novel, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," in 1870 — a book, Holland credited, with sparking his own imagination.

Born in Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland, on Feb. 24, 1841, Holland studied to become a priest before health issues forced him to leave the Irish Christian Brothers in Limerick. Joining his family on migration to America in 1873, Holland slipped on an icy wintertime Boston sidewalk, breaking his leg, according to the biography "John P. Holland, 1841-1914: Inventor of the Modern Submarine." During his hospital recuperation, Holland sketched submarine designs — submitting his ideas to the U.S. Navy, which them deemed "unworkable."

Holland ended up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he launched his first sub prototype in 1878 — only to have it sink in the Passaic River. Another prototype was launched in New York Harbor, where, Folk said: "It accidentally got too close to a barge, sank, and was deemed a menace to navigation by the harbor master, who banned Holland from conducting trials there."

More than 20 years after he first began experiments, an undeterred Holland went looking for a new home. He finally found it in New Suffolk.

"The reason it was an appropriate location for marine trials," Cutchogue-New Suffolk Free Library local history librarian Mariella Ostroski said, "is because it is a deep-water location and a protected spot. It’s in a bay, not in the ocean or Long Island Sound. And the community was very well-established, with a lot of restaurants, a blacksmith, a lumberyard and coal supplies, as well as a number of homes where there was housing" for workers and visitors.

The Long Island Rail Road first ran to Greenport in 1844, which opened transportation from New York City to nearby Mattituck, Cutchogue and Southold.

Previously based near Holland headquarters in Manhattan, the Holland VI was towed up the East River into Long Island Sound, then towed through Plum Gut, through Gardiners Bay and Shelter Island Sound en route to New Suffolk — a site, Folk said, that Holland and Isaac Rice, founder of the Electric Boat Company, leased from the Goldsmith and Tuttle shipyard for $10 a month.

Among the observers who came out to watch the journey, Folk said, was Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.

Testing and development

The Holland VI began sea trials at the site in 1899, Holland testing and developing a series of other sub platforms, among them: the USS Adder, USS Moccasin, USS Porpoise, USS Shark and the USS Plunger (SS-2), commissioned in 1902.

Two more so-called Plunger-class submarines — the USS Pike and USS Grampus — were later built and stationed in San Francisco.

The USS Holland was powered by a gasoline engine for running on the surface, rechargeable electric batteries for running underwater. At one point, gas fumes nearly killed the crew, Folk said.

In 1909, all Holland subs converted to diesel engines and diesel-electric power remained the standard for American submarines until the USS Nautilus became the first nuclear-powered sub in 1954.

In addition to the U.S. Navy, American-built Holland class subs were used by the British Royal Navy in World War I and about a dozen were used by the Imperial Russian Navy, the Navy of the Ukranian People's Republic and later the Finnish Navy and Soviet Navy through the start of the Cold War.

Though a heralded inventor, Holland died a pauper in 1914. He is buried in Totowa, New Jersey, though his grave remained without a headstone into the 1970s. A school in Paterson is named for him. 

As Rathbun said: "The A-Class boats stored at New Suffolk provided the Navy’s pioneer submariners their initial entrée into the world of undersea warfare; several of those who would become our first submarine commanding officers received some of their initial training at New Suffolk."

While submarine developments also took place in a host of other nations — Germany, England, France and Japan, to name a few — the lineage of American submarines and submariner history can all trace their roots to that one small overlooked lot on the water in New Suffolk.

"I think that is why people who do know find it so fascinating," said Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, head librarian at the Riverhead-based Suffolk County Historical Society. "It’s an iconic historical fact about New Suffolk, a part of our incredible military history on Long Island."

As Ostroski noted: "It happened there because they had just the right spot for it ... It just shows how important one little community can be to history."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”