Barrow-in-Furness marks 125 years of Royal Navy submarine building on 2 October 2026: on that date in 1901, Holland 1 was launched at Vickers’ Barrow yard. Built in secret under licence, the small experimental vessel became the Royal Navy’s first submarine and the starting point of its Submarine Service. (Royal Navy Museums’ history of HMS Holland 1; Cumbria Crack, 2 October 2026)
Why Barrow is marking the anniversary
The milestone is tied to a launch, not to Holland 1’s first dive or its arrival at sea. Vickers built the boat at Barrow under licence from Electric Boat, which supplied John Philip Holland’s design. The Royal Navy Museums history says the arrangement covered five Holland-designed submarines. Holland 1 was launched without ceremony on 2 October 1901; its first dive came months later, on 20 March 1902. (Royal Navy Museums)
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Royal Navy had been reluctant to adopt submarines as other naval powers, particularly France, developed their forces. The Barrow project was therefore both an industrial undertaking and an experiment in a technology the Navy had yet to embrace.
A secret project and an unfamiliar boat
The work was kept so secret that Lieutenant Forster Delafield Arnold-Forster, Holland 1’s first commanding officer, recalled having trouble finding it: “Eventually I discovered her in a shed (labelled ‘yacht shed’ in large white letters) where she was being built in the utmost secrecy.” The account appears in the Royal Navy Museums’ history.
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Arnold-Forster remembered the vessel’s size as a surprise: “She was only 63 ft. long and was shaped like a very fat and stumpy cigar.” He described a compact craft unlike almost anything the Navy had previously operated. Its first enclosed-basin dive took place on 20 March 1902, with sea trials beginning in April. By September, Holland 1 and another Holland boat had reached Portsmouth as part of the Navy’s first submarine flotilla. (Royal Navy Museums)
From early trials to the end of Holland 1
Holland 1’s service was brief but included a serious accident and a moment of international tension. An explosion aboard the submarine injured four men on 3 March 1903. During the Dogger Bank crisis in 1904, Holland 1 left Portsmouth with other British submarines on orders connected to a possible attack on the Russian fleet. Diplomacy intervened, and the submarines were recalled. The museum history also reproduces Admiral Sir John Fisher’s 20 April 1904 prediction: “I don’t think it is even faintly realised – the immense impending revolution which the submarines will effect as offensive weapons of war.” (Royal Navy Museums)
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Decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1913, Holland 1 sank while being towed to the breakers near the Eddystone Lighthouse. Its wreck was located in 1981 and raised in November 1982. Conservation included immersion in sodium carbonate solution from 1995; a dehumidified gallery opened in 2001. The submarine is now displayed at Royal Navy Museums: Submarines in Gosport. (Royal Navy Museums)
How Barrow’s submarine work expanded
The 2026 anniversary feature by Cumbria Crack, a sponsored local report, places Holland 1 at the beginning of a much larger shipbuilding story. It reports that Barrow launched 64 Royal Navy submarines between 1914 and 1919, including 39 from 1917 to 1919, and that more than 90 submarines were built there during the Second World War. These are figures reported by that feature. (Cumbria Crack)
The shift from early experimental boats to nuclear propulsion was another major change. According to the same feature, HMS Dreadnought, the United Kingdom’s first nuclear-powered submarine, was launched into Walney Channel on 21 October 1960. The 2026 article describes Barrow’s current work on Astute- and Dreadnought-class submarines, connecting the town’s early role to its continuing construction work. (Cumbria Crack)
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Where to see Holland 1
Holland 1 is not on public display in Barrow. Visitors can see the preserved submarine at Royal Navy Museums: Submarines in Gosport; the museum’s visitor information and ticket page covers access.
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