Frank Cable
electrical engineer
Frank Taylor Cable (19 June 1863 – 21 May 1945) was an early pioneer in submarine development and piloted the first United States Navy submarine, USS Holland during its pre-commissioning trials.
Early life and education
Cable was born in New Milford, Connecticut, where his father was a farmer. He attended Claverack College in Hudson, New York, followed by Franklin Institute and Drexel Institute in Philadelphia.
Career
Cable was employed by the Electro-Dynamic Company owned by financier Isaac Rice and William Woodnut Griscom. Rice was a financial supporter of inventor John Phillip Holland, whose Holland Torpedo Boat Company (the forerunner and precursor to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation) was developing a prototype submarine, Holland VI, for the United States Navy.
When Holland VI accidentally sank with its hatches open in New York Harbor on 13 October 1897, Cable was dispatched by Rice to assist with the repairs. The submarine's internal components had been flooded with corrosive salt water, leading to short circuits and corrosion. Cable had previously specialized in the design and production of propulsion machinery, including diesel engines and electric motors and was able to co-ordinate repair work and restore the submarine's operations.
Cable was retained as an electrician at Holland's company — while still working for Rice — and made a number of changes to the submarine design. A key proposal of Cable's was to improve the submarine's handling by relocating the rudder and stern diving planes aft the propeller.
The public source identifies “Frank Cable” as electrical engineer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Frank, Cable and electrical.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5485635. VIAF identifies the subject as 38210588. The Library of Congress control number is n80038106. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1945 and 1897.
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This entry incorporates text from “Frank Cable” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.