1958
Nautilus Travels Under North Pole
On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus
accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. The
world’s first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus dived at Point Barrow,
Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the
top of the world. It then steamed on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter
route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe.
The USS Nautilus was constructed under
the direction of U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born
engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in
charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work on an atomic
submarine. Regarded as a fanatic by his detractors, Rickover succeeded in
developing and delivering the world’s first nuclear submarine years ahead of
schedule. In 1952, the Nautilus’ keel was laid by President Harry S.
Truman, and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of
champagne across its bow as it was launched into the Thames River at Groton,
Connecticut. Commissioned on September 30, 1954, it first ran under nuclear
power on the morning of January 17, 1955.
Much larger than the diesel-electric
submarines that preceded it, the Nautilus stretched 319 feet and
displaced 3,180 tons. It could remain submerged for almost unlimited periods
because its atomic engine needed no air and only a very small quantity of
nuclear fuel. The uranium-powered nuclear reactor produced steam that drove
propulsion turbines, allowing the Nautilus to travel underwater at
speeds in excess of 20 knots.
In its early years of service, the USS Nautilus
broke numerous submarine travel records and on July 23, 1958, departed Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii, on “Operation Northwest Passage”–the first crossing of the
North Pole by submarine. There were 116 men aboard for this historic voyage,
including Commander William R. Anderson, 111 officers and crew, and four
civilian scientists. The Nautilus steamed north through the Bering
Strait and did not surface until it reached Point Barrow, Alaska, in the
Beaufort Sea, though it did send its periscope up once off the Diomedes
Islands, between Alaska and Siberia, to check for radar bearings. On August 1,
the submarine left the north coast of Alaska and dove under the Arctic ice cap.
The submarine traveled at a depth of about 500
feet, and the ice cap above varied in thickness from 10 to 50 feet, with the
midnight sun of the Arctic shining in varying degrees through the blue ice. At
11:15 p.m. EDT on August 3, 1958, Commander Anderson announced to his crew:
“For the world, our country, and the Navy–the North Pole.” The Nautilus
passed under the geographic North Pole without pausing. The submarine next
surfaced in the Greenland Sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland on August 5.
Two days later, it ended its historic journey at Iceland. For the command
during the historic journey, President Dwight D. Eisenhower decorated Anderson
with the Legion of Merit.
After a career spanning 25 years and almost
500,000 miles steamed, the Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s first nuclear
submarine went on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the
Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.