building of a larger boat, called
the _Argonaut_. It was designed in 1895 and built in 1897 at
Baltimore.

Concerning the _Argonaut_ Mr. Lake says in the same article:

The _Argonaut_ as originally built was 36 feet long and 9 feet in
diameter. She was the first submarine to be fitted with an
internal-combustion engine. She was propelled with a thirty
horse-power gasoline (petrol) engine driving a screw propeller.
She was fitted with two toothed driving wheels forward which were
revolved by suitable gearing when navigating on the waterbed, or
they could be disconnected from this gearing and permitted to
revolve freely, propulsion being secured by the screw propeller.
A wheel in the rudder enabled her to be steered in any direction
when on the bottom. She also had a diving compartment to enable
divers to leave or enter the vessel when submerged, to operate on
wrecks or to permit inspection of the bottom or to recover
shellfish. She also had a lookout compartment in the extreme bow,
with a powerful searchlight to light up a pathway in front of her
as she moved along over the waterbed. This searchlight I later
found of little value except for night work in clear water. In
clear water the sunlight would permit of as good vision without
the use of the light as with it, while if the water was not
clear, no amount of light would permit of vision through it for
any considerable distance.

In January, 1898 [says Mr. Lake], while the _Argonaut_ was
submerged, telephone conversation was held from submerged
stations with Baltimore, Washington, and New York.

In 1898, also, the _Argonaut_ made the trip from Norfolk to New
York under her own power and unescorted. In her original form she
was a cigar-shaped craft with only a small percentage of reserve
buoyancy in her surface cruising condition. We were caught out in
the severe November northeast storm of 1898 in which over 200
vessels were lost and we did not succeed in reaching a harbour in
the "horseshoe" back of Sandy Hook until, of course, in the
morning. The seas were so rough they would break over her conning
tower in such masses I was obliged to lash myself fast to prevent
being swept overboard. It was freezing weather and I was soaked
and covered with ice on reaching harbour.

This experience caus