Nautilus travels under North Pole 1958
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.
(More Events on This Day in History)
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Civil War
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Cold War
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Crime
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Disaster
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General Interest
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Hollywood
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Literary
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Music
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Old West
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Presidential
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Sports
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Vietnam War
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World War I
- 1914 Germany and France declare war on each other
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World War II
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