Argonaut class
 Drawing of the Argonaut
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Argonaut was aclass of submarines builtaround the turn of the century , to which the boats Argonaut 1 from 1897 and Argonaut 2 from 1900 belonged. The builder was the engineer Simon Lake . Itspredecessor was the experimental Argonaut Junior from 1894. It was a diving chamber for a diver .
The Argonaut 1 was built in Baltimore in 1897 and was 11 meters long. In September 1898, the builder Simon Lake undertook with a crew of four an overwater and underwater voyage over 500 km from Norfolk (Virginia) to Sandy Hook in New Jersey . It was the first submarine to successfully operate in the open sea. After a successful voyage, Simon Lake received a telegram from the French writer Jules Verne in which he congratulated Simon for making his submarine dream a reality. Simon Lake had read Verne's book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when he was young, which sparked his interest in submarines.
The Argonaut 2 was a reconstruction of the predecessor boat Argonaut 1 , but appeared more like a ship than a submarine due to its high superstructure. The boat, built in 1900, had a length of 18 meters and a significantly different profile compared to the previous boat. The cigar-shaped boat had a steel hull and could travel 3000 nautical miles and dive for 48 hours. It was driven by a propeller driven by an internal combustion engine . Additional equipment included a dynamo, searchlights and pumps for air and water.