. His financial support, for which he relied entirely upon
relatives and friends, was practically exhausted. But fortunately on
March 3, 1893, Congress appropriated a sum of money to defray the
expenses of constructing an experimental submarine. Invitations to
inventors were extended. So precarious was Holland's financial
condition at that time that he found it necessary to borrow the
small sum of money involved in making plans which he had to submit.
It is claimed that he succeeded in doing this in a manner highly
typical of his thoroughness.

He needed only about $350.00 but even this comparatively small sum
was more than he had. However, he happened to be lunching with a
young lawyer just about this time and began to tell him about his
financial difficulties. Holland told him that if he only had $347.19
he could prepare the plans and pay the necessary fees. And that
done, he was sure of being able to win the competition. His lawyer
friend, of course, had been approached before by other people for
loans. Invariably they had asked him for some round sum and
Holland's request for $347.19 when he might just as well have asked
for $350.00 aroused his interest. He asked the inventor what the
nineteen cents were to be used for. Quick as a flash he was told
that they were needed to pay for a particular type of ruler
necessary to draw the required plans. So impressed was the lawyer
with Holland's accuracy and honesty in asking not a cent more than
he actually needed that he at once advanced the money. And a good
investment it turned out to be. For in exchange he received a
good-sized block of stock in the Holland Torpedo Boat Company which
in later years made him a multi-millionaire.

Holland's plans did win the competition just as he asserted that
they would; but, of course, winning a prize, offered by a
government, and getting that government to do something about it,
are two different matters. So two years went by before the Holland
Torpedo Boat Company at last was able to start with the construction
of the new submarine which was to be called the _Plunger_.

The principal feature of this new boat was that it was to have a
steam engine for surface navigation and an electric motor for
underwater navigation. This arrangement was not so much a new
invention of Holland's as an adaptation of ideas which had been
promulgated by others. Especially indebted was he in this respect to
Commander Hovgaard of the Danish navy who, i