R&D

R&D John Philip Holland trying to set up shop in the Netherlands

 

    In 1899, while on a business trip to Europe, John Philip Holland (an American submarine designer and founder of the American Holland Torpedo Boat Company) entered negotiations with the Dutch Captain Adrian Tromp (C/o Holland American Cotton Oil Company) to set up a company to manufacture submarines in Europe using Holland's expertise and patents.

In June 1900, John Holland signed a contract agreeing to assign all his patents, both foreign and domestic, to the Electric Boat Company.  The term of this contract was from April 1, 1899 until March 30, 1905. It appears that John Holland thought he agreed to turn over his American patents only. He claims to still have control of his European patents, but Electric Boat disagrees.

Negotiations with Captain Adrian Tromp continued in 1901 at which time Holland informed him of the faults in the type 7 boats which were considered by Isaac L. Rice (now company president) and Elihu B. Frost (company secretary) to be company secrets.

Isaac L. Rice and Elihu B. Frost learned of Holland's negotiations with Tromp in 1902, and rather than fire Holland, they extracted an oral agreement that Holland would not compete with the Electric Boat Company - during or after the expiration of the existing contract. In violation of the oral agreement, Holland starts a new company in 1904 to design and construct submarines.

Because Holland was trying to set up a new company in Europe and/or sell submarines under his own name while he was having an oral agreement with the Electric Boat Company the latter filed a bill of complaint in 1905. The existence of this 'oral agreement' is Electric Boat's claim. John Holland claims there was no such agreement, but the Judge agreed with Electric Boat.  This bill of complaint also includes interesting correspondence between J.P. Holland and the Dutch Captain Adrian Tromp.

Garry McCcue, webmaster of the J.P. Holland website, writes: "....I believe the Bill of Complaint was filed for purely business reasons. Electric Boat was trading on the Holland name. Electric Boat did not want to compete with "Holland" boats designed by John Holland.  The Bill of Complaint effectively put John Holland out of business....."  

Read the Bill of Complaint.
 

John Philip Holland (Photo: © Edward Max Graf Collection, Paterson Museum)

 

    It seems that parallel with the negotiations with Tromp, John P. Holland also negotiated indirectly with Arie Smit, the president of the Dutch shipyard De Schelde in Vlissingen.

In 1901, Arie Smit, was visited by former naval officer Van Asperen, who was acting as a representative for John Holland (an American submarine designer). Holland was employed by the American Holland Torpedo Boat Company at the time, but was unhappy with the current arrangement. He asked Van Asperen to explore the possibilities for a new company in the Netherlands. Holland was thinking about a new yard for submarines, but he also wanted to commit himself to an existing yard such as De Schelde. Van Asperen tried to establish a new yard in Amsterdam, but the plan failed. So he asked Arie Smit if he would like to employ Mr. Holland. In the end the negotiations failed and De Schelde signed a contract with Electric Boat Company for the construction of one submarine of the type 7-P, the O 1.

Several quoted letters in the Bill of Complaint make clear that Van Asperen and Adrian Tromp certainly knew each other quite well. So perhaps these were not parallel negotiations at all and former naval officer Van Asperen might have been on the same "team" as Captain Adrian Tromp.

More info on J.P. Holland and his submarines at the John Philip Holland website.

 

Arie Smit (Image © Fotoarchief "Kon.Schelde Groep" Vlissingen).

 

 

Related pages

O 1 boat history

O 1 class specifications

John Philip Holland trying to set up shop in the Netherlands

Bill of complaint

Dutch Navy inspects Fulton submarine

Off-site

John Philip Holland (1841-1914) and his Submarines

	Home	Classes	Boats	Tenders	News	Export
	R&D	Men	Books	Pictures	Links
	Models	M-media	Specials	Forum	Search	Help US !
	Copyright © 1997-2006 - Design and content DutchSubmarines.com