Vickers requested assistance with the trials of Number One Holland as per their contract and the Holland Boat Company sent an American captain with submersible ship experience, Captain Cable, who arrived at Barrow with a crew. He was an extremely cautious man with a healthy respect for the sea and all those who might sink in her. His comment "I don't go submarining for my health" was not lost on the embryo British crew.
Captain Cable readily agreed with Bacon that the boat as designed contained several difficult operating mechanisms and these were amended and the problems rectified at Barrow.
Trials in the Dock basin
After further trials in the docks basin, Captain Cable took the first Holland boat out to sea in Morecambe Bay but insisted on taking a compass with him, having grave reservations about relying on Bacon's optical tube for navigation.
Lieut Arnold-Forster, a man imbued with a safety conscious attitude which equalled if not exceeded that of Captain Cable, provides us with a graphic account of the first diving trials of Holland 1 in the basin of Barrow Docks, and the first sea trial:
" When the boat was ready, we tried trimming her down and blowing her up again in the basin, with big chains passed underneath her to pull us up if we got stuck at the bottom."
The first dive
"The first real dive and underwater run was made in Morecambe Bay, and an American crew that had done some trial runs in the United States were sent over by the Holland Boat Company to go out with us for our first effort.
After the boat was trimmed down, everyone except the American working the diving rudder wheel, the 'boss diver' as he called himself, was seated about the boat on canvas stools opposite their work, and warned that if they moved they might upset the balance, and perhaps cause a nose-dive into the mud.
Then the motor went ahead, the diving rudder was put down and green water was seen through the conning tower windows. Gradually, the depth gauge showed we were running underwater for the first time; and those who could see it watched anxiously whilst listening to the hum of the motor and the queer-sounding American orders given by our temporary Captain.
