as a sudden
fluff of foam, the ragged edge of a wave, and then I saw, not
more than a hundred feet away, a smack bound toward New York
under full sail. Her rigging was full of men, gazing curiously in
our direction, no doubt wondering what strange monster of the sea
was coming forth for a breath of air.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MODERN SUBMARINE

Holland and Lake must be considered the fathers of the modern
submarine. This claim is not made in a spirit of patriotic
boastfulness, though, of course it is true that the latter was an
American by birth, and the former by choice, and that, therefore,
we, as a nation, have a right to be proud of the accomplishments of
these two fellow-citizens of ours. Without wishing to detract
anything from the value of the work done by many men in many
countries towards the development of the submarine after and
contemporaneously with Holland and Lake, it still remains true that
the work which these two did formed the foundation on which all
others built. To-day, no submarine worthy of the name, no matter
where it has been built and no matter where and how it is used, is
without some features which are typical of either the Holland or
Lake type. In many instances, and this is true especially of
submarines of the highest type and the greatest development, the
most significant characteristics of the Holland and Lake boats have
been combined.

During the years that followed the small beginnings of Holland and
Lake, vast and highly efficient organizations have been built up to
continue and elaborate their work. Death claimed Mr. Holland shortly
after the outbreak of the great war, on August 12, 1914. Mr. Lake in
1917 was still personally connected with and the guiding spirit of
the extensive industrial establishments which have been created at
Bridgeport, Conn., as a result of his inventions. He, too,
surrounded himself with a corps of experts who in co-operation with
him have brought the Lake submarines to a point of perfection which
at the time of the _Argonaut's_ first trip would have appeared all
but impossible.

Roughly speaking, the beginning of the twentieth century may be called
the turning point in the history of submarine invention and the
beginning of the modern submarine. Although, as we have heard, various
governments, especially those of France and the United States,
interested themselves in the submarine question and appropriated
small sums of mo