"The Argonaut Jr was built by Simon Lake in 1894 of pitch pine, an inexpensive way to demonstrate his principles of submergence that would ultimately change the development of submarine technology. When submerged to a shallow seafloor, a diver's door could be opened and he could retrieve articles or exit & re-enter the little 14-foot submarine by maintaining a pressurized compartment.The Argonaut was named after the Argonaut sea creature, better known as the Portuguese man-o-war, because both could navigate on the surface, on the sea-floor, or anywhere in between. A novel feature of Simon Lake's early submarines was the use of wheels to keep the vessel from getting stuck to the bottom and to provide mobility by the use of interior hand cranks. The success of the demonstration amazed on-lookers at Atlantic Highlands NJ and inspired investors to support the establishment of The Lake Submarine Company in 1895 and to build a proper steel submarine vessel, the Argonaut I, by 1898."
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