USS V-4 (Argonaut) Bow area. This drawing shows the multi deck interior of the Argonaut. Above the Torpedo Room is an entirely separate pressure hull that contained a Radio Room and a Windless Room. Access to these spaces seems to be through the forward escape trunk. Since the forward radio mast is above the Radio area this may have been just an equipment space.

Aft of the escape trunk is what looks like two curved bulkheads. These are just bulkhead stiffeners. At this point it becomes one pressure hull. This are the forward end of the main pressure hull containing the ships Galley and Crews Messing area plus the main Crews berthing. A deck below, under the Galley, is the Crews Head and Wash Room and the ships Refrigerator and Freezer aft of the head.

Admiral James Fife, Jr., commanding submarine Task Force 42 in Brisbane, Australia, (where Argonaut was stationed), believing that all submarines, even ones specially adapted, such as Argonaut, should conduct war patrols when not actively involved in their speciality and had her ordered out. Argonaut was old, slow, under powered and unwieldy and totally unfit for the rough and tumble that an active war patrol needed. Regardless she was ordered out for such patrol and it became her last.

On January 10, 1943 Argonaut spotted a convoy of five freighters and their destroyer escorts. An Army aircraft was by chance flying overhead and witnessed Argonaut's attack. Argonaut hit at least one of the destroyers with her torpedoes, and they promptly counter attacked. A crew member on board the plane saw Argonaut's bow suddenly break the water at an unusual angle. It is this portion of the sub, seen above, that was seen and attacked by the Japanese destroyers Isokaze and Maikaze. The aircraft was out of ammunition and could offer no help to the submarine. It was apparent that a depth charge had severely damaged the submarine. The destroyers continued circling Argonaut and pumping shells into her bow. She slipped below the waves and was never heard from again. One hundred and two officers and men went down with the submarine.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) Midship lines drawings. At the right can be seen the Crews berthing area. Just aft of this is the Officers Ward Room and Berthing spaces. Below is seen the forward ships battery. At the aft end of the battery is the forward storage for the submarines forward 6 inch deck gun. One of two ammunition hoists take the shell and powder charge up to the deck to be loaded in the gun.

At the forward end of the conning tower fairwater is a midships deck access and escape trunk. This is leading up from inside the Control Room. To the left of the ladder to this trunk is the actual Radio Room in a heavily insulated space to protect the equipment from stray electro magnetic radiation.

Aft of the Conning Tower barrel is the After Escape Trunk and bridge access trunk leading up from the After Battery and serving the stern regions of the submarine. Up in the bridge structure can be seen the topside helm station in the covered area at the front of the conning tower barrel. The after 6 inch gun is seen on the aft deck. Twin to the one forward.

Below the Control Room is the Pump Room. In this space, besides the pumps for the bilges and trimming, is a small diesel engine attached to an air compressor for replenishing the air banks.

Aft of the Pump Room is the After Battery Bank and aft of that the aft 6 inch shell and powder storage with its own ammunition hoist.

Aft of the Control Room the space is divided by a pressure bulkhead. Aft of these are the Ships Office and Chief Petty Officers berthing and Wash Room and Dining spaces.

In the after Starboard corner is the Maneuvering Room. In later Fleet Boats this space was moved all the way aft of the Engine Rooms.

A water tight bulkhead divides the submarine at this point and the upper and lower Engine Room is aft or to the left of these space. A deck access hatch with ladders can be seen at the forward end of the engine room.

The print I got this from had this dark smudging and I can not find a way of clearing this up with out much loss of detail.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) lines drawings of the mine storage and mine laying tubes aft.This space was also a major Crews Berthing area with bunks for 26 crew.

This space is hard to describe. The mines were stored in two massive rotating drums. Almost akin to the cartridge chamber in a six shot pistol. The drums rotated bringing the mines to be loaded into alignment with the two mine laying tubes. As one drum emptied the mines farther forward were moved aft in the empty spaces.

Under the most forward mine drum were the two massive ships electric motors attached to the shafts and propellers.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) SS 166 on launch day November 10, 1927 at Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard, Kittery, Maine. Her two 40 inch aft mine laying tubes can be seen under her stern just above the rudder. She was designed to carry up to 60 of the MK XI type mines.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) SS 166 slides down the ways, November 10, 1927. When launched she became the largest submarine in the world at 381 feet in length and a 33½ foot beam. She would weight 3128 tonnes on the surface and 4164 tonnes submerged. She remained the largest US built submarine until the the US missile submarine USS George Washington was built at 381.6 feet in length in 1959.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) SS 166 slides down the ways, November 10, 1927. When launched she became the largest submarine in the world at 381 feet in length and a 33½ foot beam. She would weight 3128 tonnes on the surface and 4164 tonnes submerged. She remained the largest US built submarine until the the US missile submarine USS George Washington was built at 381.6 feet in length in 1959.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) post launch, November 10, 1927. Tugs are taking her in tow to remove her to the fitting out docks. Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard, Kittery, Maine.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) post launch, November 10, 1927 taken from another angle. The Navy tug Mohave AT-15, with her stern to the camera is one of two tugs assigned to maneuver 381 foot behemoth to the fitting out pier. The other tug is not identified.

A number of interesting things are seen and happening in this photo. The launch is complete and the signal flags are coming down. The flags forward of the Conning Tower are being gathered up. The after string of flags is being loosened. A Bi-pod of boards has supported the after string. A man has climbed to to a cross brace and is to free them. A Man stands behind him to steady him.

A Chief of Offier is on the stern inspecting and ensuring that all is satisfactory.

The dark triangle seen between the tugs is the forward gun sponson. There is a like one behind the conning tower hidden by the Mohave. The Mohave itself has just applied forward thrust to is propeller as evidenced by the wash seen at her stern. The white "splash" seen at the waterline at the side of Mohave is the outlet for the cooling water for the tugs' boiler.

The tug all the way to the left is taking charge of the building cradle seen floating next to it. A crew in a small boat is assisting.

Submarine Historian David Johnston, after looking the photo over and commenting on how completed the submarine looks, had these comments:
"It is interesting to note how complete the V-4 is. Portsmouth routinely launched their boats with about 75-80 percent of the work needed to build her already completed prior to launch. The rest would be completed at the fitting out pier.

Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, CA and the Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, CT used a similar construction philosophy. They were able to do this because these yards built only submarines (although Mare Island also built some destroyers [and other ships]) with the construction rate being relatively low.

During this period the Electric Boat Company of Groton, CT used a differing philosophy with their subcontractors Bethlehem Quincy and Bethlehem San Francisco. The Quincy yard launched their boats only about 65% complete, and the San Francisco yard only at about 50%. This was mostly due to the fact that those two yards were very busy in the years between 1910 and 1925, building all sorts of ships for both civilian use and the Navy. They had to clear the building ways so that the next keel could be laid.

You could make a strong case for the efficacy of either method, but statistics show that the Navy yards and Lake generally completed their boats faster."

USS V-4 (Argonaut) and the diminutive USS O-2 in dry dock together. The dock is being flooded through ports in the dry dock gates at the rear of the image. The V-4 at that time was the largest submarine in the world at 381 feet long and the O-2 had a length of 172 feet, 209 feet shorter than the V-4!

USS V-4 (Argonaut) at Portsmouth Ship Yard. The submarine is wearing the Union Jack at the bow and the US flag at the stern but there is no sign of a Commissioning Pennant so we must assume this is a pre-commissioning photo. There is no indication of date that can be found.

As best as can be determined all the people seen on the submarine are civilian workers.

There appears to be a large vertical tube mounted in the after deck. This looks to be the exhaust duct from the Ships Heating Boiler mounted in the aft end of the Engine Room. This is seen in lines drawings but never seen in photographs before. Behind this "exhaust duct" can be seen the after 6" 53 caliber deck gun.

This lines drawing shows the exhaust duct from the Ships Heating Boiler mounted in the aft end of the Engine Room. It provided heat and hot water to the submarine. It is seen in these lines drawings but we have never seen in photographs before. There is a photo of evidence of this system aboard the Nautilus (SS 168) on the next page of the "V-Boat" archive.

Close up of exhaust duct from the Ships Heating Boiler mounted in the aft end of the Engine Room. This is seen in lines drawings but we have never seen in photographs before. Behind this "exhaust duct" can be seen the after 6" 53 caliber deck gun.

Close up of activity on the foredeck and around the conning tower. To the right of the Radio Mast are two shorter "sticks". The taller one of the flag staff for the underway colors (flag). It is mounted on the after end of the cigarette deck on the conning tower fairwater.

The shorter one is the Number 1 periscope mounted in the conning tower. It is offset to starboard by four feet off the center line (note its location in subsequent photos below) and was a short 'scope to be used before surfacing to check for obstacles. This periscope was later removed as unnecessary. The submarine had two centerline mounted regular periscopes that gave full visibility.

Probably the most prominent feature in this close up is the structure built to support the aft ends of the Long Wire Radio Antennas. Radio was barely 25 years old as a technology and improvements were being worked on all the time.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) on Commissioning Day April 2, 1928. The crew is turned out on deck wearing flat hats as uniform of the day. A Navy Band is playing on the back deck and a news reel photographer on the pier is filming the event for showing in the movie theaters later. It would be nice to see that film.

The black squares painted on the back of the conning tower fairwater help date subsequent photos as these have been painted out in other photos seen of the submarine.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) on Commissioning Day April 2, 1928. This photo is taken just a few moments after the previous one. The man on the stern has completed raising the flag and is saluting it. Another camera man has moved into the frame.

The black squares painted on the back of the conning tower fairwater help date subsequent photos as these have been painted out in other photos seen of the submarine.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) was built with some new safety features as the results of the sinking of the USS F-4, sunk on March 25; 1915; S-5, sunk September 1, 1920; O-5, sunk October 28, 1923; and S-4, sunk on December 1, 1927 and the extreme difficulty of salvage workers to recover the submarines. Here, Lt jg John A. Hollowell is showing the two External Salvage valves that divers can use to send air to the Forward and After groups of ballast tanks from the subs own high pressure air flasks.

Close-up of the Salvage Air valve handles on the USS V-4. The right hand valve says "FOR'D GROUP" and the valve handle has one hole in it so divers can identify it in the dark or murky waters. The left hand valve says "AIR OPEN SALVAGE" with a direction arrow through OPEN, this valve is for the AFT GROUP and has two holes. Divers can feel these holes and know which valve they are touching. You can see on the inside of the valve handle the words "BALLAST TANKS".

USS V-4 (Argonaut) was built with some new safety features such as these externally mounted salvage valves. Here, Lt jg John A. Hollowell is showing the External Salvage valve for the Officers Quarters Compartment that is located on the fore deck of submarine. Divers can use this to send air to that space using air from the subs own high pressure air flasks or from an external air source. Photo taken June 26, 1928.

Close-up of the USS V-4 (Argonaut) External Salvage valves for the Officers Quarters. Lettering says: "SALVAGE AIR, OFFICERS QUARTERS". Photos taken June 26, 1928.

Extreme close-up of the USS V-4 (Argonaut) External Salvage valves for the Officers Quarters. Lettering says: "SALVAGE AIR, OFFICERS QUARTERS". The finger is pointing to the place an external air hose would be attached. Photos taken June 26, 1928.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) forward 6 inch 53 caliber deck gun. Crewmen posing with the gun for publicity photos. The ammunition hoist for sending the 6" projectile and powder up to the deck can be seen sticking out of the deck to the left. The rest of the crew are trying to stay out of the photographers way while be takes this shot. The barrel plug can been seen in the barrel muzzle and the brace for supporting the end of the barrel is laying flat on the deck. Various deck hatches can be seen to give access to places and things in the superstructure.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) forward 6 inch 53 caliber deck gun. Crewmen posing with the gun for publicity photos. The 'luggage' seen against the conning tower are probably equipment cases for the photographers and film crews along for the ride. The rest of the crew are trying to stay out of the photographers way while be takes this shot. The barrel plug can been seen in the barrel muzzle and the brace for supporting the end of the barrel is laying flat on the deck.