Stories of Inventors: The Adventures of Inventors and Engineers

by Russell Doubleday

The Argonaut was built to run on the surface or on the bottom; she was not designed to navigate half-way between. When in search of a wreck or made ready for a cruise along the bottom, the trap door or hatch in her turret-like pilot house was tightly closed; the water was let into her ballast tanks, and two heavy weights to which were attached strong cables that could be wound or unwound from the inside were lowered from their recesses in the fore and after part of the keel of the boat to the bottom; then the motor was started connected to the winding mechanism, and, the buoyancy of the boat being greatly reduced, she was drawn to the bottom by the winding of the anchor cables. As she sank, more and more water was taken into her tanks until she weighed slightly more than the water she displaced. When her wheels rested on the bottom her anchor-weights were pulled completely into their wells, so that they would not interfere with her movements.

Then the strange submarine vehicle began her voyage on the bottom of the bay or ocean. Since the pipes projected above the surface plenty of fresh air was admitted, and it was quite as easy to run the gasoline engine under water as on the surface. In the turrets, as far removed as possible from the magnetic influences of the steel hull, the compass was placed, and an ingeniously arranged mirror reflected its readings down below where the steersman could see it conveniently. Aft of the steering-wheel was the gasoline motor, connected with the propeller-shaft and also with the driving-wheels; it was so arranged that either could be thrown out of gear or both operated at once. She was equipped with depth-gauges showing the distance below the surface, and another device showing the trim of the vessel; compressed-air tanks, propelling and pumping machinery, an air-compressor and dynamo which supplied the current to light the ship and also for the searchlight which illuminated the under-water pathway—all this apparatus left but little room in the hold, but it was all so carefully planned that not an inch was wasted, and space was still left for her crew of three or four to work, eat, and even sleep, below the waves.

Forward of the main space of the boat were the diving and lookout compartments, which really were the most important parts of the boat, as far as her wrecking ability was concerned. By means of a trap door in the diving compartment through the bottom of the boat a man fitted with a diving-suit could go out and explore a wreck or examine the bottom almost as easily as a man goes out of his front door to call for an "extra." It will be thought at once, "But the water will rush in when the trap door is opened." This is prevented by filling the diving compartment, which is separated from the main part of the ship by steel walls, with compressed air of sufficient pressure to keep the water from coming in—that is, the pressure of water from without equals the pressure of air from within and neither element can pass into the other's domain.

An air-lock separates the diver's section from the main hold so that it is possible to pass from one to the other while the entrance to the sea is still open. A person entering the lock from the large room first closes the door between and then gradually admits the compressed air until the pressure is the same as in the diving compartment, when the door into it may be safely opened. When returning, this operation is simply reversed. The lookout stands forward of the diver's space. When the Argonaut rolls along the bottom, round openings protected with heavy glass permit the lookout to follow the beam of light thrown by the searchlight and see dimly any sizable obstruction. When the diving compartment is in use the man on lookout duty uses a portable telephone to tell his shipmates in the main room what is happening out in the wet, and by the same means the reports of the diver can be communicated without opening the air-lock.

This little ship (thirty-six feet long) has done wonderful things. She has cruised over the bottom of Chesapeake Bay, New York Bay, Hampton Roads, and the Atlantic Ocean, her driving-wheels propelling her when the bottom was hard, and her screw when the oozy condition of the submarine road made her spiked wheels useless except to steer with. Her passengers have been able to examine the bottom under twenty feet of water (without wetting their feet), through the trap door, with the aid of an electric light let down into the clear depths. Telephone messages have been sent from the bottom of Baltimore Harbour to the top of the New York World building, telling of the conditions there in contrast to the New York editor's aerial perch. Cables have been picked up and examined without dredging—a hook lowered through the trap door being all that was necessary. Wrecks have been examined and valuables recovered.

Although the Argonaut travelled over 2,000 miles under water and on the surface, propelled by her own power, her inventor was not satisfied with her. He cut her in two, therefore, and added a section to her, making her sixty-six feet long; this allowed more comfortable quarters for her crew, space for larger engines, compressors, etc.

It was off Bridgeport, Connecticut, that the new Argonaut did her first practical wrecking. A barge loaded with coal had sunk in a gale and could not be located with the ordinary means. The Argonaut, however, with the aid of a device called the "wreck-detector," also invented by Mr. Lake, speedily found it, sank near it, and also submerged a new kind of freight-boat built for the purpose by the inventor. A diver quickly explored the hulk, opened the hatches of the freight-boat, which was cigar-shaped like the Argonaut and supplied with wheels so it could be drawn over the bottom, and placed the suction-tube in position. Seven minutes later eight tons of coal had been transferred from the wreck to the submarine freight-boat. The hatches were then closed and compressed air admitted, forcing out the water, and five minutes later the freight-boat was floating on the surface with eight tons of coal from a wreck which could not even be located by the ordinary means.

It is possible that in the future these modern "argonauts" will be seeking the golden fleeces of the sea in wrecks, in golden sands like the beaches of Nome, and that these amphibious boats will be ready along all the dangerous coasts to rush to the rescue of noble ships and wrest them from the clutches of the cruel sea.

Mr. Lake has also designed and built a submarine torpedo-boat that will travel on the surface, under the waves, or on the bottom; provided with both gasoline and electric power, and, fitted with torpedo discharge tubes, she will be able to throw a submarine torpedo; her diver could attach a charge of dynamite to the keel of an anchored warship, or she could do great damage by hooking up cables through her diver's trap door and cutting them, and by setting adrift anchored torpedoes and submarine mines.