Up to 1900, the British Admiralty had stolidly refused to have anything to do with submarines, considering them to have a defensive role only, for the weaker maritime nations, and to be a 'damned un-English weapon'. But the fact that the French had clandestinely 'torpedoed' one of their own capital ships with a dummy weapon and were now rapidly building up a submarine fleet undoubtedly helped persuade the Admiralty to 'test the value of the submarine boat as a weapon in the hands of our enemies'. Accordingly, five submarines were ordered, to be built at Barrow by Vickers, Sons and Maxim, under licence from the Holland Torpedo Boat Company of America (later to become the Electric Boat Company).
