The first Officers and men appointed to the submarine service in September 1901, were as follows:
Lieut F D Arnold-Forster
Lieut S Bowles Evans
Lieut J B Moreton
Engineer Robert Spence
William R Waller PO 1 cl
F C Knight PO 1 cl
Joseph B Rees PO 1 cl
Ernest R Neville PO 1 cl
Wm J Robinson ERA 3cl
Wm Muirhead ERA 3 cl
The 2 officers and five rates forming the first RN crew were drawn from this pioneering band of ten submariners who served in Holland 1 at Barrow.
The Captain arrives at Barrow
On arriving at the shipyard, Holland 1's Captain elect, Lieut Arnold-Forster asked the whereabouts of the submarine but nobody in the yard seemed to have heard of any submarine at all. After a few hours being passed from one part of the yard to another, he was eventually directed to a building identified in large white letters 'Yacht Shed' wherein the submarine was being built with the utmost secrecy. Only selected, trustworthy men were allowed inside. All frames and other parts for the novel craft taking shape were deliberately identified with the non-attributable marking 'For Pontoon No. One' so they would arouse no interest in the busy workshops. All the men working on 'Pontoon No. One ' had been told to 'keep their traps shut' and, faced with a naval fellow with gold braid asking to see his new submarine, did well to follow orders. Security was thus seen to have been quite effective at Barrow!
