TheRidersofDoom said

[orig][quote]

olland continued to improve his designs and worked on several experimental boats, prior to his successful efforts with a privately built type, launched on 17 May, 1897. This was the first submarine having power to run submerged for any considerable distance, and the first to combine electric motors for submerged travel and gasoline engines for use on the surface. She was purchased by the U.S. Navy (on 11 April, 1900) after rigorous tests and was commissioned on 12 October, 1900 as USS Holland. Six more of her type were ordered and built at the Crescent Shipyard in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The company that emerged from under these developments was called The Electric Boat Company, founded on 7 February, 1899. Isaac Leopold Rice became the company's first President with Elihu B. Frost acting as vice president and chief financial officer.