“The Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorised and directed to contract for five submarine torpedo boats of the _Holland_ type, of the most improved design, at a price not to exceed one hundred and seventy thousand dollars each: _Provided_, That such boats shall be similar in dimensions to the proposed new _Holland_, plans and specifications of which were submitted to the Navy Department by the Holland Torpedo-boat Company, November twenty-third, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. The said new contract and the submarine torpedo-boats covered by the same are to be in accordance with the stipulations of the contract of purchase made April eleventh, nineteen hundred, by and between the Holland Torpedo-boat Company, represented by the secretary of the said company, the party of the first part, and the United States, represented by the Secretary of the Navy, the party of the second part. Towards the completion of the equipment, outfit of the new vessels heretofore authorised 400,000 dollars.” A contract for the construction of _six_ (not five) submarine torpedo-boats, Nos. 3–8, was finally concluded on the 25th of August, 1900, between the Holland Torpedo-boat Company and the Secretary of the United States Navy. Their names are as follows:— 1. _Adder._ 2. _Moccassin._ 3. _Porpoise._ 4. _Shark._ These four were to be constructed in the yards of Lewis Nixon, at Elizabethport, New Jersey. 5. _Grampus._ 6. _Pike._ These were to be built at the Union Iron Works, San Francisco. As the specification for these six boats resembles in almost every particular that for the five British submarines of the _Holland_ type, details need not be given here. The contract price of the hull and machinery of each boat was $34,000. The first of the six submarine boats ordered from the Holland Company by the United States Government, to be launched was the _Adder_, the launching ceremony being performed by Mrs. E. B. Frost, wife of the Secretary of the Holland Company. The _Porpoise_, _Moccassin_, and _Shark_ were all launched in 1901; at the time of writing the _Grampus_ and the _Pike_ were still on the stocks.[11] Footnote 11: The Naval Committee of the United States Senate in June, 1902, amended the Appropriation Bill, and provided for the purchase of five further submarines of the latest _Holland_ type, and for investigation into other types. [Sidenote: The “Fulton.”] The _Fulton_ is an exact duplicate of the six boats the Holland Torpedo-boat Company have built for the United States. She has been built at the expense of the company with the object of experimenting, to see if it is possible to get smaller engines with less weight and greater power.