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Photo # NH 54425:  USS V-4 (later renamed Argonaut) underway, circa 1930

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Argonaut (SM-1, later APS-1), 1928-1943,
originally named V-4

USS V-4, a 2710-ton minelaying submarine of unique design, was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine. Commissioned in early April 1928, she spent several months in trials and operations off the U.S. East Coast. In March 1929 V-4 arrived at San Diego, California, to begin service with the Battle Fleet. Her name was changed to Argonaut in February 1931, and she spent the rest of the decade participating in exercises and routine operations off the West Coast and in Hawaiian waters.

On 7 December 1941, when the Japanese began the Pacific War with their attack on Pearl Harbor, Argonaut was on patrol near Midway Atoll. That evening, when two enemy destroyers shelled the U.S. base there, she made the Pacific Fleet's first attempted submarine attack on Japanese Navy units. During the first months of 1942 Argonaut underwent conversion to fit her for transport work, a suitable role for such a large, cumbersome and elderly submarine. In August 1942 she joined USS Nautilus in taking more than two-hundred U.S. Marines to Makin Atoll, in the Gilberts, for a commando attack. This raid, intended to distract enemy attention from the ongoing campaign to hold Guadalcanal and Tulagi, met serious difficulties but did succeed in wiping out the small Japanese garrison on the island.

Argonaut was reclassified APS-1 in September, belated recognition that transport missions were now her primary purpose. In December 1942 she was sent to Brisbane, Australia, to conduct further special operations in the south Pacific. While en route on 10 January 1943, she was ordered to intercept a Japanese convoy near New Britain. This attack, which may have damaged one enemy destroyer, was fatal to the big and clumsy submarine, which was sunk by depth charges and shell fire. Argonaut's entire crew of 105 officers and men was lost with her.

Hull number note: Though frequently listed under the hull number SS-166, which was reserved for her, Argonaut (ex-V-4) never actually served under that designation.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Argonaut and USS V-4 (SM-1, later APS-1).

For additional images related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Argonaut (SM-1, later APS-1) -- Partial, On Board and Construction Views.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 69163

    USS V-4 (SM-1)


    Emerging from a crash dive, while making her shakedown tests off Provincetown, Massachusetts, 21 June 1928.
    V-4 was renamed Argonaut in 1931.

    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 555 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91776

    USS V-4 (SM-1)


    Transiting the Panama Canal, circa 1929.
    V-4 was renamed Argonaut in 1931.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98520

    USS V-4 (SM-1)


    Off San Diego, California, 1 July 1929.
    Photographed from an aircraft based at Naval Air Station San Diego.
    V-4 was renamed Argonaut in 1931.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 590 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 54425

    USS V-4 (SM-1)


    Underway at sea, circa 1930.
    V-4 was renamed Argonaut in 1931.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 129KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 61687

    USS V-4 (SM-1)


    Photograph taken in about 1930.
    V-4 was renamed Argonaut in 1931.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 590 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45667

    USS Nautilus (SS-168);
    USS Argonaut (SM-1);
    and
    USS Narwhal (SS-167); (listed left to right)

    Tied up together in port, circa the early 1930s.

    Courtesy of J.A. Casoly.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45668

    USS Nautilus (SS-168);
    USS Argonaut (SM-1);
    and
    USS Narwhal (SS-167); (listed left to right)

    Tied up together in port, circa the early 1930s.

    Courtesy of J.A. Casoly.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 450 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-11742

    Makin Island Raid, August 1942


    USS Argonaut (SM-1) docks at Pearl Harbor upon her return from the Makin raid, 26 August 1942.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 57634

    USS Argonaut (SM-1)


    Photograph of an artwork by Ike R. Lloyd, circa 1942.

    Courtesy of Ike Lloyd.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     


    USS Argonaut (originally named V-4) is seen distantly in the following photographs of other subjects:

    Photo #: NH 70676

    USS V-6 (SC-2)


    View on deck, looking forward from the bridge. Taken while she was fitting out at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 12 April 1930. Note that her forward 6"/53 deck gun has not yet been fitted.
    USS V-4 (SM-1) and barge YR-5 are in the background.
    V-6 was renamed Nautilus in 1931.

    Courtesy of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1970.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 180KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-451125

    Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii


    Aerial view of the Submarine Base, with part of the supply depot beyond and the fuel farm at right, looking north on 13 October 1941.
    Note the fuel tank across the road from the submarine base, painted to resemble a building.
    The building beside the submarine ascent tower (in left center, shaped like an upsidedown "U") housed the U.S. Fleet Headquarters at the time of the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941. Office of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Fleet's Commander in Chief, was in the upper left corner of the building's top floor.
    See Photo # 80-G-451125 (complete caption) for identification of some of the ships present.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 144KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     

    For additional images related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Argonaut (SM-1, later APS-1) -- Partial, On Board and Construction Views.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 7 June 2003