[1] Captain Henry Jackson, British naval attaché in Paris, had been instructed to report on submarine developments which had been underway in France for several years.

In January 1899 he informed the Admiralty of exercises with the 270-ton experimental submarine Gustave Zédé which had been used to launch a torpedo attack on the battleship Magenta.

Meanwhile, Admiral Fisher commanding the Mediterranean Fleet, which might be required to fight the French, asked the Admiralty for instructions on the best defence against submarines and suggested the use of defensive mines.

It was agreed that The Electric Boat Company (having purchased the rights from Holland) would license Vickers to build submarines in Britain, and an order was placed for five.

The Board of Admiralty now considered that the submarines might also be useful in an offensive role, not merely to practice defence, and if trials of the boats were successful further orders would be placed with Vickers.

The new Parliamentary Secretary to the board was Hugh Oakley Arnold-Forster, who as a backbench Member of Parliament had criticised Goschen for failing to adopt submarines.

Wilson considered that the limited range of existing submarines meant they would only be able to operate in French waters, whereas if further developed could become a weapon to threaten British home ports.

Arnold-Forster continued to press for more submarines to be built, considering that the navy either needed a great many or none, but although Selborne was inclined to agree, the two were opposed by the Sea Lords.

His first recommendations were to note that the Holland submarines were likely to compare poorly to the current French design and would be unable to operate on the surface in anything other than fair weather (the boats had a range of only 20 miles (32 km) underwater).

[8] The submarines initially had serious reliability problems, and a 1903 attempt to sail around the Isle of Wight on the surface resulted in four of the boats breaking down before covering much more than 4 miles (6.4 km).