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USS Nautilus SSN-571 (1954-United
States) from Wikipedia
"Underway on nuclear power" Following her commissioning, Nautilus remained dockside for further construction and testing. At 11 am on 17 January 1955 she put to sea for the first time and signaled her historic message: "Underway on nuclear power." On 10 May, she headed south for shakedown. Submerged throughout, she traveled 2,100 kilometres (1,100 nmi; 1,300 mi) from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico and covered 2,223 km (1,200 nmi; 1,381 mi) in less than ninety hours. At the time, this was the longest submerged cruise by a submarine and at the highest sustained speed (for at least one hour) ever recorded. From 1955 to 1957, Nautilus continued to be used to investigate the effects of increased submerged speeds and endurance. The improvements rendered the progress made in anti-submarine warfare during the Second World War virtually obsolete. Radar and anti-submarine aircraft, which had proved crucial in defeating submarines during the War, proved ineffective against a vessel able to quickly move out of an area, change depth quickly and stay submerged for very long periods. On 4 February 1957, Nautilus logged her 60,000th nautical mile (110,000 km; 69,000 mi), matching the endurance of her namesake, the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. In May, she departed for the Pacific Coast to participate in coastal exercises and the fleet exercise, operation "Home Run," which acquainted units of the Pacific Fleet with the capabilities of nuclear submarines. Nautilus returned to New London, Connecticut, on 21 July and departed again on 19 August for her first voyage of 2,226 kilometres (1,202 nmi; 1,383 mi) under polar pack ice. Thereafter, she headed for the Eastern Atlantic to participate in NATO exercises and conduct a tour of various British and French ports where she was inspected by defense personnel of those countries. She arrived back at New London on 28 October, underwent upkeep, and then conducted coastal operations until the spring. Operation Sunshine - under the North Pole In response to the nuclear ICBM threat posed by Sputnik, President Eisenhower ordered the US Navy to attempt a submarine transit of the North Pole to gain credibility for the soon-to-come SLBM weapons system. On 25 April 1958, Nautilus was underway again for the West Coast, now commanded by Commander William R. Anderson, USN. Stopping at San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, she began her history-making polar transit, operation "Sunshine", as she departed the latter port on 9 June. On 19 June she entered the Chukchi Sea, but was turned back by deep drift ice in those shallow waters. On 28 June she arrived at Pearl Harbor to await better ice conditions. By 23 July her wait was over, and she set a course northward. She submerged in the Barrow Sea Valley on 1 August and on 3 August, at 2315 (EDT) she became the first watercraft to reach the geographic North Pole. The ability to navigate at extreme latitudes and without surfacing was enabled by the technology of the North American Aviation N6A-1 Inertial Navigation System, a naval modification of the N6A used in the Navaho cruise missile. (The N6A-1 had been installed on Nautilus and Skate after initial sea trials on the USS Compass Island in 1957.) From the North Pole, she continued on and after 96 hours and 1,590 nmi (2,940 km; 1,830 mi) under the ice, surfaced northeast of Greenland, having completed the first successful submerged voyage around the North Pole. The technical details of this mission were planned by scientists from the Naval Electronics Laboratory including Dr. Waldo Lyon who accompanied Nautilus as chief scientist and ice pilot.
Operational history Following fleet exercises in early 1959, Nautilus entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, for her first complete overhaul (28 May 1959 - 15 August 1960). Overhaul was followed by refresher training and on 24 October she departed New London for her first deployment with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, returning to her home-port 16 December. Nautilus operated in the Atlantic, conducting evaluation tests for ASW improvements, participating in NATO exercises and, during October 1962, in the naval quarantine of Cuba, until she headed east again for a two-month Mediterranean tour in August 1963. On her return she joined in fleet exercises until entering the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for her second overhaul 17 January 1964. On 2 May 1966, Nautilus returned to her homeport to resume operations with the Atlantic Fleet, and at some point around that month, logged her 300,000th nautical mile (560,000 km; 350,000 mi) underway. For the next year and a quarter she conducted special operations for ComSubLant and then in August 1967, returned to Portsmouth, for another year's stay. During an exercise in 1966 she collided with the aircraft carrier USS Essex on 10 November, while diving shallow. Following repairs in Portsmouth she conducted exercises off the southeastern seaboard. She returned to New London in December 1968. In the spring of 1979, Nautilus set out from Groton, Connecticut on
her final voyage under the command of Richard A. Riddell. She reached Mare
Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California on 26 May 1979, her last day
underway. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register
on 3 March 1980.
The hull and superstructure of Nautilus vibrated sufficiently that sonar became ineffective at more than 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) speed. Also, noise generation is extremely undesirable in submarines as this makes the vessel vulnerable to detection. Lessons learned from this problem were applied to later nuclear submarines. Awards and commendations Presidential Unit Citation
To commemorate the first submerged voyage under the North Pole, all Nautilus crewmembers who made the voyage may wear a Presidential Unit Citation ribbon with a special clasp in the form of a gold block letter N (image above). Museum Nautilus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Secretary of the Interior on 20 May 1982. She was named as the official state ship of Connecticut in 1983. Following an extensive conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Nautilus was towed back to Groton, Connecticut arriving on 6 July 1985. On 11 April 1986, Nautilus opened to the public as part of the Submarine Force Library and Museum. Nautilus now serves as a museum of submarine history, after undergoing a five-month preservation in 2002 at the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics, at a cost of approximately $4.7 million ($6 million in present-day terms). Nautilus attracts some 250,000 visitors annually to her present berth near Naval Submarine Base New London. Nautilus celebrated the 50th anniversary of her commissioning on 30 September 2004 with a ceremony that included a speech from Vice Admiral Eugene P Wilkinson, the first Commanding Officer of Nautilus, and a designation of the ship as an American Nuclear Society National Nuclear Landmark. Visitors may tour the forward two compartments, with guidance from an automated system. Despite similar alterations to exhibit the engineering spaces, tours aft of the control room are not permitted due to safety and security concerns. Nautilus is the subject of an episode of the syndicated television anthology
series, The Silent Service, which aired during the 1957-1958 season.
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