The original Argonaut (SM-1) was the largest submarine built for the United States Navy until the advent of nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Designed as a mine layer and built in the 1920s, Argonaut was really obsolete by the time the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. Already at sea near Midway Island on 7 December 1941, Argonaut immediately commenced her first war patrol, during which the mechanical condition of the submarine often presented more risk to the crew than the enemy.

Argonaut returned to Mare Island for extensive modernization following her first patrol. When she returned to Pearl Harbor, she was next sent on a special mission together with U.S.S. Nautilus, carrying Carlson's Raiders to Makin Island. By this time her mine tubes had been removed and the former mine room and storage converted to accommodations for troops. Following the Makin Island raid, the first Argonaut was transferred to Australia, and was lost with all hands during her third war patrol.

The second Argonaut (SS-475) was a Tench class fleet submarine, built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard and commission in 1945. She made one war patrol, returning a few days before the war ended. She remained in service after the war and was sold to Canada in 1968, where she served as HMCS Rainbow. She was scrapped in 1977.

This volume, the fifth issued in Riverdale Books' American Submarine War Patrol Reports series, contains the official patrol reports for both submarines. A brief article and crew list is included covering what is know of the first Argonaut's final patrol.

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