''Argonaut Junior'' was the first successful

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

built by the American engineer

Simon Lake Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines ...

. Her main attribute, like that of the sub built by Lake in 1897, , was an

air lock An air lock is a restriction of, or complete stoppage of liquid flow caused by vapour trapped in a high point of a liquid-filled pipe system. The gas, being less dense than the liquid, rises to any high points. This phenomenon is known as vapor l ...

. Her dimensions were length , beam , and a depth of . Different sources incorrectly identify ''Argonaut No 1'', and ''Argonaut No 2'' as the name of this vessel. ''Argonaut No 1'' was built in 1897 and is in length, ''Argonaut No 2'' was a reconstruction of ''Argonaut No 1'' finishing in 1900 with a length of and significantly different profile. ''Argonaut Junior'' was built in 1894 as a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

by Lake after he was denied a contract by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. It was triangular, made of wood (

yellow pine In ecology and forestry, yellow pine refers to a number of conifer species that tend to grow in similar plant communities and yield similar strong wood. In the Western United States, yellow pine refers to Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine. In the S ...

), and had three wheels to keep it from getting stuck to the sea bottom. She moved along the bottom of

Sandy Hook Bay The Raritan Bayshore is a region in central sections in the state of New Jersey. It is the area around Raritan Bay from The Amboys to Sandy Hook, in Middlesex and Monmouth counties, including the towns of Perth Amboy, South Amboy, Sayreville, ...

by one or two men cranking the axle of the two driving wheels. With sufficient air pressure in the cabin, a bottom door (air lock) could be opened and no water would come into the boat. Then by putting on a pair of rubber boots the operator could walk around on the sea bottom and push the boat along with him and pick up objects from the sea bottom. A full-scale replica was built in 1994 by the Atlantic Highlands Lions Club and is on open-air display next to the Harbor Park in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Argonaut Jr

References

External links

The Simon Lake Submarine Web Site
19th-century submarines of the United States {{submarine-stub