He states that on the occasion of the attack on the French ships in the Basque Roads by Lord Cochrane, when _explosion-ships_ as well as fire-ships were used, volunteers were called for to take them in, and "no one was compelled to go, as the enemy by the laws of war can put anyone to death who is taken belonging to a fire-ship". Had we refrained from following the example of the French most probably the Germans would have done so also, first because the French submarines sustained many accidents and did not appear very likely, to experts such as the German naval officers, to become a very valuable arm; and, secondly, because in naval matters they have always tried to follow our lead. But the newspaper "experts" and other laymen in this country to whom the idea of submarine navigation was most captivating as something mysterious, new, and strange, with great potentialities, not only for warfare but for "copy", clamoured in the Press for submarines. The Admiralty eventually ordered four "Holland" boats for "experimental purposes". John P. Holland was an American inventor, and his first boat, built in 1875, "was a tiny affair with just enough room in her for one man to sit down amidships and work the pedals that turned the propeller. It was only 16 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 20 inches wide, and it is probably the smallest submarine ever constructed. The 'crew' had to wear a diving-dress, and drew air from reservoirs at either end of the vessel. Five little torpedoes were carried, which could be put out through the dome and fired from a distance by electricity."[51] Between this time and 1902 Holland was responsible for six more submarines and the design for another which was never built. The earlier ones were small, but the last two or three of considerable size. The _Holland VIII_ deserves some description, as she may be regarded as the prototype of the British earlier submarine vessels from which nearly all of our larger and later types have been evolved. "She was a porpoise-like vessel 65 feet long, nearly 11 feet in diameter, and of 75 tons displacement. Her single propeller was driven by a gas-engine when at the surface and by an electric motor when below, both being placed on the same shaft and connected or disconnected as required. She carried a torpedo-tube, a tube for throwing aerial torpedoes, and a submarine gun, the latter being placed aft and inclined upwards, as was the aerial torpedo-tube forward".[52] This vessel, after very considerable alterations had been made in her, was re-named the _Holland IX_ and purchased for the United States navy. [Illustration: A FLEET OF SUBMARINES IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR Observe the _Victory_ in the background. If Nelson were standing on the poop with his glass, what would he think and say of these "microbes of the sea"?]