Bridgeport Trust Company Check signed by Simon Lake - 1917-18 dated Autograph - For Sale

A check from the Housatonic Shipbuilding Co. drawn on a Bridgeport Trust Company Check countersigned by Simon Lake at left side of check. Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 " June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines for the United States Navy. Born in Pleasantville, New Jersey on September 4, 1866. Lake joined his father's foundry business after attending public schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Lake had a strong interest in undersea travel. He built his first submarine, Argonaut Junior, in 1894 in response to an 1893 request from the US Navy for a submarine torpedo boat. In 1898 he followed up with the 36-foot (11m) Argonaut 1, which he sailed from Norfolk, Virginia for one thousand miles (1,600km) to Sandy Hook, New Jersey (which is actually 250 miles (400km) north of Norfolk), arriving in November of 1898. As a result of lessons learned on that journey, he rebuilt it into the 60-foot (18m) Argonaut 2. Read more at Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.