The Commercial Uses of the Sub= Marine Boat.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 148

The Commercial Uses of the Sub= Marine Boat.

During the recent coal strike m New York, when the price of coal was advancing by leaps and bounds, and when coal began selling at ten dollars a ton, writes Herbert C. Fyfe m the Magazine of Commerce, it occurred to an enterpnsmgand ingenious American citizen to utilise the submarine boat for the recovery of coal from the bottom of Long Island Sound. During the year it would appear that numberless coal lighters are sunk in the severe storms and hurricanes that sweep with such intensity over the continent, and the idea was to bring again to the surface some of the coal that was lying sunken m the bay. Fortunately a vessel capable of performing the work was to hand. This was the " Argonaut," a submarine automobile fitted with wheels for travelling on the ocean floor, the invention of Mr. Simon Lake. By the aid of this boat a quantity of coal was recovered and sold at good profit to the organisers of this interesting project. Mr. Simon Lake claims that the " Argonaut " is the only entirely successful submarine boat ever built, and also the only practical one. Mr. Lake designed her chiefly to demonstrate the utility of vessels of her type for practical commercial uses,

and he has himself pointed out some of the fields in which the " Argonaut " is likely to prove useful: — 1. Wrecking sunken vessels, salvage work, raising wrecks, and generally in all submarine operations where divers, diving-bells, and similar appliances are used. 2. In the coral, pearl, or sponge fisheries. 3. Dredging gold and other metals and minerals from river and sea-coast bottoms. 4. In laying submarine foundations, piers, docks, breakwaters, lighthouses, or removing rock or debris from the entrance to harbours. 5. As a scientific and pleasure craft.