In 1897 Mr. Holland published in _Cassier's Magazine_ an article on submarine navigation, giving some of his experiences with the _Fenian Ram_. This article explains very well the state of the art of submarine navigation in 1893. One of the early difficulties encountered was how to know the direction one was going when submerged. Referring to his experience in the _Fenian Ram_, Mr. Holland said: "Experience with submarine boats had been so very limited up to 1881 that more difficulty in steering a straight course by compass while submerged than while moving on the surface was scarcely expected. The writer had no suspicion that his boat could not be steered perfectly until he had tried it after making about half a dozen preliminary dives to adjust the automatic apparatus. Having become doubtful of the reliability of the compass, he had it carefully compensated, and then made a trial submerged run in New York Harbor, heading the vessel toward a point which he knew was about twelve minutes' run distant. "The boat dived at an inclination of about fifteen degrees, and it was noticed that when she again reached a horizontal position the compass needle swung around a complete circle and vibrated a good deal before coming to rest. The boat was then discovered to be about ninety degrees off her course. It was steered again in the proper direction, and then inclined upward at a sharp angle to find whether the action of the compass would be as erratic while rising as while running downward. One end of the needle dipped to the bottom of the cup when beginning the ascent, and remained there during the rise. When the boat approached a horizontal position, a few feet below the surface, the needle swung around as violently as it had done during the boat's descent, and then came to rest again at a point that indicated the boat to be far off the true course. "As it appeared quite clear that the run was not made in the direction intended, and that about one mile must have been covered from the start, ten minutes having already passed, the boat was brought to the surface of the water just in time to prevent her from running on rocks that lay about twenty yards straight ahead and sixty yards down from the starting point. "The boat had been started to run over one mile up stream, and the mile-run ended sixty yards down stream, with the boat heading exactly opposite to her original direction. This erratic action of the compass was discovered to be due to heeling, or inclining from the horizontal position, and that it could not be corrected in that boat on account of the near proximity to the compass needle of considerable masses of iron that were liable to have their position changed while the vessel was submerged."