The Aréthuse- class was a French class of hunting submarines. The submarines were built for the French Navy in the 1950s . The construction came about under the influence of the German submarine class XXIII .
The submarines were used in the Mediterranean, were in service until 1981, and were replaced by the Rubis- class nuclear submarines . The Argonaute is now a museum ship in the Parc de la Villette in Paris .
An enlarged further development of the class was the Daphné class built in the late 1960s .