Born in
Pleasantville, New Jersey on September 4, 1866. He studied at the
Clinton Liberal Institute in
Fort Plain, New York. As a result of lessons learned on that journey, he rebuilt it into the
Argonaut 2. Neither
Argonaut nor Lake's following submarine,
Protector, built in 1901, were accepted by the Navy.
Protector was the first submarine to have
diving planes mounted forward of the
conning tower and a flat keel. Four diving planes allowed
Protector to maintain depth without changing
ballast tank levels, and to dive level without a down-angle. Level diving was a feature of several subsequent Lake designs, notably the first three US
G-class submarines.
Protector also had a
lock-out chamber for divers to leave the submarine. Lake, lacking Holland's financial backing, was unable to continue building submarines in the United States. He sold
Protector to
Imperial Russia in 1904 as the
Osetr and spent the next seven years in
Europe designing submarines for the
Austro-Hungarian Navy,
Germany's
Kaiserliche Marine, and the
Imperial Russian Navy (
Osetr- and
Kaiman-class submarines). He lived in
Milford, Connecticut from 1907 until his death in 1945. In 1912, he founded the
Lake Torpedo Boat Company in
Bridgeport, Connecticut, which built 26 submarines for the United States Navy during and after
World War I. Lake's first submarine for the U.S. Navy, , set a depth record of in November 1912. In 1922 the United States and other countries
signed treaties limiting the size of their navies. This led to financial difficulties which forced the
Lake Torpedo Boat Company to close in the mid-1920s. Following the company's closure, Lake continued designing maritime salvage systems including obtaining permission to partially salvage the
Lusitania off the south Irish coast and then later a failed attempt to salvage gold from , a British frigate that sank in 1780 in
New York City's
East River with his submarine, the
Explorer. Lake redesigned the former as the Arctic exploration submarine
Nautilus, used by Sir
Hubert Wilkins in a 1931 expedition. He also advised the United States Navy on submarine technology and maritime salvage during
World War II. Lake was a member,
Freemason of Monmouth Lodge No. 172 in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. He later affiliated with Ansantawae Lodge No. 89 in Milford, Connecticut. He died on June 23, 1945. ==Legacy==