In 1881, John Holland designed and had built at the Delamater Iron Company in Manhattan a working submarine. Funded by the Fenian Brotherhood and intended to sink British shipping, the submarines was in all reepcts successful, notwithstanding that it never fulfilled the bellicose intent it’s backers. Holland’s invention plays a central role in Antione Vanner’s latest nautical thriller, Britannia’s Shark. Holland’s remarkable submarine, Holland Boat No. II, often called the Fenian Ram, is on display along with an earlier design, Holland Boat No. 1, at the Paterson Museum, in Paterson, NJ.
Recently another, notably less successful submarine went on display at the Gilpin County Historical Society Museum in Central City, Colorado. Called the “Mountain Submarine” the craft was raised from the depths of Missouri Lake, a frigid body of water 9,000 feet high in the mountains near Central City, where it sank on its maiden voyage in 1898. The submarine was designed and built by Rufus T. Owen, a mining engineer. John Holland, by comparison was an Irish school teacher. Safe to say Rufus Owen was no John Holland. His submarine sank before he could attempt the first test dive. Based on the appearance of the wood framed, zinc covered craft, he was proablaby lucky that it did. Thanks to Dave Shirlaw for passing along the news.
First of all, notwithstanding the name, there is no point, as in point of land, to 
Great news. 
The Voice Tube: One day in February last year, our Museum Director got an email asking, “Is LILAC missing a voice tube from her bridge?” The ship was missing the mouthpiece to that very voice tube, but, how did the writer know to ask that question? He had it, of course. Ed Hlywa did, however, come by it honestly, buying it for $10 in the 1980s from LILAC’s last owner, Henry Houck. He says, “I always assumed that LILAC was heading to a shipbreaker and that I was preserving a little bit of nautical history.” Reminiscing one day, he Googled “LILAC Falling Creek” and was amazed to discover that she had survived and that the Lilac Preservation Project was working to restore her. Ed graciously offered to return this little piece of history, saying, “It has served me well and if you hold it to your ear, you may be able to still hear the orders being called down to the engine room.”
There is good and bad news about California blue whales. The good news is that the 
Earlier this month, 
If you are in the neighborhood tomorrow, Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 12:30PM, you may wish to stop by the “bon-voyage” party on Pier 17 in New York’s South Street Seaport for the 
The 
In the general category of “you can’t make this stuff up,” the