An Argonaut is an adventurer, especially one who sails the seas in search of fortune or adventure.
This present-day interpretation arose from those so called who, in 1849, lured by reports of vast gold fields in California, endured great hardship to reach that land of promise, especially those who went by sea first to Central America, thence by land through jungle and mountain to the Pacific, and by ship again to San Francisco.
The name actually derives from the Greek legend of the search by Jason, in the ship Argo, for the golden fleece.
He and his fifty companions were Argonautes, from Argo, the ship, and nautes, “sailor.”
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