USS Argonaut (SS-166)

USS Argonaut underway.
History
United States
Name:	USS Argonaut
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	1 May 1925
Launched:	10 November 1927
Commissioned:	2 April 1928
Fate:	Sunk by Japanese destroyers off Rabaul on 10 January 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:	V-4 (Argonaut)-class composite direct-drive diesel and diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	Surfaced: 2,710 long tons (2,750 t) (standard); 3,046 long tons (3,095 t) (full load) Submerged: 4,161 long tons (4,228 t)
Length:	358 ft (109 m) (waterline), 381 ft (116 m) (overall)
Beam:	33 ft 9.5 in (10.300 m)
Draft:	16 ft .25 in (4.8832 m)
Propulsion:	As Built: 2 × BuEng (MAN-designed) direct-drive main diesel engines, 1,400 hp (1,000 kW) each. 1 × BuEng MAN auxiliary diesel-electric diesel generator, 300 kW (400 hp) Re-Engined 1942: 4 x General Motors Winton main diesel engines, 1,200 hp (890 kW) each, 1 × GM Winton 300 kW (400 hp) and 1 x GM Winton 150 kW (200 hp) auxiliary diesel generators, 2 × 120-cell Exide ULS37 batteries, 2 × Ridgway electric motors, 1,100 hp (820 kW) each, 2 × shafts
Speed:	Surfaced: 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) (design); 13.6 kn (15.7 mph; 25.2 km/h) (trials) Submerged: 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h) (design); 7.43 kn (8.55 mph; 13.76 km/h) (trials)
Range:	8,000 nmi (9,200 mi; 15,000 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h); 18,000 nmi (21,000 mi; 33,000 km) @ 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h) with fuel in main ballast tanks
Endurance:	10 hours @ 5 kn (5.8 mph; 9.3 km/h)
Test depth:	300 ft (91 m)
Capacity:	173,875 US gal (658,190 L) diesel fuel
Complement:	As Built: 8 officers, 78 men 1931: 7 officers, 9 chief petty officers, 71 enlisted
Armament:	As Built: 4 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (bow; 16 torpedoes), 2 × 40 inch (1,016 mm)minelaying tubes aft (60 mines), 2 × 6 inch (152 mm)/53 caliber Mark XII Mod 2 wet typedeck guns 1942: 6 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 2 stern external; 20 torpedoes), minelaying tubes removed, 2 × 6 inch deck guns as above, 2 × 20 mm cannon, 2 × .30 caliber machine guns
Notes:	Two Battle stars

USS Argonaut (V-4/SF-7/SM-1/A-1/APS-1/SS-166 (never formally held this classification)) was a submarine of the United States Navy, the first ship to carry the name. Argonaut was laid down as V-4 on 1 May 1925 at Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 10 November 1927, sponsored by Mrs. Philip Mason Sears, the daughter of Rear Admiral William D. MacDougall, and commissioned on 2 April 1928, Lieutenant Commander W.M. Quigley in command.

V-4 was the first of the second generation of V-boats commissioned in the late 1920s, which remain the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built by the United States. V-4 was the behemoth of its class. These submarines were exempt by special agreement from the armament and tonnage limitations of the Washington Treaty. Her configuration, and that of the following V-5 and V-6, resulted from an evolving strategic concept that increasingly emphasized the possibility of a naval war with Japan in the far western Pacific. This factor, and the implications of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, suggested the need for long-range submarine "cruisers", or "strategic scouts", as well as long-range minelayers, for which long endurance, not high speed, was most important. The design was possibly influenced by the German "U-cruisers" of the Type U-139 and Type U-151 U-boat classes, although V-4, V-5, and V-6 were all larger than these. V-4 and her near-sisters V-5 (Narwhal) and V-6 (Nautilus) were initially designed with larger and more powerful MAN-designed diesel engines than the Busch-Sulzer engines that propelled earlier V-boats, which were failures. Unfortunately, the specially built engines failed to produce their design power, and some developed dangerous crankcase explosions. V-4 was ultimately completed with smaller MAN diesels of 1,400 hp (1,000 kW), compared with 2,350 hp (1,750 kW) for V-5 and V-6. The smaller diesels were required to allow sufficient space for mine storage.

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