Inspired by his boyhood love for Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, mechanical engineer Simon Lake constructed his first submarine, Argonaut Junior, in 1894 in response to an open call from the United States Navy for a submarine torpedo boat. In 1898, Lake’s second vessel, Argonaut 1, was the first sub to travel in open waters when he used it to travel from Norfolk, Virginia to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The Navy was uninterested in Lake’s designs at first, but he did sell several of his subs to…
