Arthur Leopold Busch
Encyclopedia
Arthur Leopold Busch or Du Busc (5 March 1866 – 1956) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 naval architect responsible for the development of the United States Navy's first submarines.

Career

Busch was a draftsman-in-charge at the Harland and Wolff
Harland and Wolff
Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland....

 shipyards in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 between the years 1888-1892. He was a longtime member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers is a professional society that provides a forum for the advancement of the engineering profession as applied to the marine field...

 (SNAME) which became organized in 1893 in the state of New Jersey. Nixon and Busch initially met at William Cramp and Sons
William Cramp and Sons
thumb | upright | 1899 advertisement for William Cramp & Sons William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1825 by William Cramp, and was the preeminent U.S. iron shipbuilder in the 19th century. The American Ship & Commerce Corporation bought the yard in 1919 but closed...

 Shipbuilders in 1892, the same year that Busch arrived in America from Harland and Wolff.

He was the shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...

 superintendent at Lewis Nixon's
Lewis Nixon (naval architect)
Lewis Nixon I was a naval architect, shipbuilding executive, public servant, and political activist. He designed the United States' first modern battleships, and supervised the construction of its first modern submarines, all before his 40th birthday. He was briefly the leader of Tammany Hall...

 Crescent Shipyard
Crescent Shipyard
Crescent Shipyard, located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, built a number of ships for the United States Navy and allied nations as well during their production run, which lasted about ten years while under the Crescent name and banner. Production of these ships began before the Spanish-American war and...

 located in Elizabethport, New Jersey
Elizabethport, New Jersey
A neighborhood in the City of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Formerly home of the Singer Manufacturing Company, makers of Singer Sewing Machines....

 at the end of the 19th century. This shipyard is where the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

's first submarines were built under Busch's supervision beginning in the late fall of 1896. Busch worked in unison with John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S...

 to design and build the first submarine craft accepted by the United States Navy, which was the pioneering craft, Holland VI
USS Holland (SS-1)
USS Holland was the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine, named for her Irish-American inventor, John Philip Holland, although not the first submarine of the US Navy, which was the 1862...

. This was the first commissioned submarine in the United States Navy, purchased by the American Government on April 11, 1900. This particular day is commemorated by the United States submarine community as "Submarine Day".

This pioneering craft was originally laid down by John Philip Holland as the Holland VI
USS Holland (SS-1)
USS Holland was the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine, named for her Irish-American inventor, John Philip Holland, although not the first submarine of the US Navy, which was the 1862...

 but was renamed the USS Holland on April 11, 1900. Holland's company was then known as The Holland Torpedo Boat Company - the forerunner and precursor to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation. The Electric Boat Company is this company's "Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

" progeny as General Dynamics can trace their company's origins to this very point beginning with the success and purchase of the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine, USS Holland. The USS Holland was eventually given the hull number SS-1, as America's first truly viable submarine.

The United States government then ordered more submarines after the successful trials and purchase of Holland VI. These submarines were known as the A-class or . A prototype was constructed under Busch's direction at the Crescent Shipyard in the year 1900. This submarine craft was called Fulton
Som class submarine
The Som class were a series of submarines built for the Imperial Russian Navy in 1904-1907. They were designed by the Electric Boat Company and ordered in the 1904 emergency programme at the time of the Russo-Japanese War. The boats were designed to be transportable by train. The first boat, Som,...

, named after the American steamship pioneer Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...

. However, Fulton was never commissioned into U. S. Navy service and was sold to the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...

 in 1905 during their conflict with the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Busch was sent to the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka city, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama...

 in Yokosuka, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 during the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

 of 1904-1905 to build the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

's first submarines during this time period. This work was done on behalf of the newly renamed Electric Boat Company and the company's very first President/CEO, Isaac Leopold Rice. Originally, these first five Type VII submarines were constructed at the Fore River Ship and Engine Company located in Quincy, Massachusetts under Busch's direction. Electric Boat moved company operations to this shipyard in 1904. The company remained there for some twenty years before relocating. They opened their own shipyard at its present location in Groton, Connecticut.

After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Busch changed his last name to Du Busc in 1919 - this was most probably due to the large amount of anti-German sentiment that existed in the United States during that time though his family lineage was of Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 origins. Busch was also a member of the Peconic Lodge #349 located in Greenport, which is at the far eastern part of Long Island, in the state of New York.

Mr. Busch was also responsible for the design and development of many ship classes for the United States Navy and contributed to their production at some of the country's largest shipyards through both World Wars - as he raised enthusiasm for the American cause. Busch was a shipbuilding consultant during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and worked at some of the most prominent shipyards around the world for the majority of his life.

External links

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