re: #256 Decatur Deb

Holland was a wild Irishman. He started as a Christian Brother math teacher, but medicaled out. After the US government turned down his sub designs, he was funded (sometimes) by the Fenians, who are thus the godfathers of the modern submarine.

The USN eventually backed him, though: bought a sub from him, and eventually commissioned it as USS Holland (the Navy’s first submarine).
And I guess his Irish nationalism didn’t stop him from selling another model to the British: their first sub was HMS Holland (1902).