by the Electric Boat Company. Since Electric Boat had no yard of its own, it subcontracted to Fore River in order to complete orders. The first American submarine built at the yard was , launched in 1906. This arrangement lasted for the next twenty years, until Electric Boat built its own yard in 1924. Fore River would remain the primary builder of Electric Boat-designed submarines through the S-class of 1922, completing a total of 69 submarines for the US Navy during this period. During this time, the yard built civilian ships, including Sankaty, which was built for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company. Furthermore, the company created the Fore River Apprentice School, in order to ensure that an adequately trained workforce would be able to work at the yard in the coming years. Over time, over 2,000 people were graduated from its program. In 1906, and were delivered by the yard, marking the yard's first battleships delivered. The completion of these two battleships and other ships at the yard coincided at a time when there were 2,500 people employed. In 1908, there were eighteen contracts employed at Fore River, which would not be met again until 1916. The yard also completed car floats for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad during this time. Of note, Fore River fielded a soccer team from at least 1907 to around 1920–1921. This team, which played in local leagues, was part of one of the early soccer leagues in the United States. Another big development in the history of the yard was the receiving of the contract to build the for the Argentine Navy. The ship was one of two foreign battleships ever constructed in the United States, and occurred during the South American dreadnought race. After a long bidding process, the Argentine Naval Commission found that the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company bid was lowest on one battleship, and the Fore River Shipbuilding Company was lowest on the other. Despite some possible setbacks, the upcoming 1910 Pan-American Conference, and a guarantee of American participation in the Argentine centennial celebrations, Fore River secured the battleship contracts on 21 January 1910. The maximum price Fore River tendered, $10.7 million, underbid the British by more than $973,000, but their ship's displacement was smaller, the belt armor was thinner, and the top speed was slightly slower. Rivadavia was built by Fore