USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

Encyclopedia : U : US : USS : USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

Nautilus, retired, heads for home on May 82002, after preservation by the Electric Boat Corporation.
Career
Awarded:	2 August 1951
Laid down:	14 June 1952
Launched:	21 January 1954
Commissioned:	30 September 1954
Fate:	retained by Navy as museum
Stricken:	3 March 1980
General Characteristics
Displacement:	2980 tons light, 3520 tons full, 540 tons dead
Length:	97.5 m (320 ft)
Beam:	8.5 m (28 ft)
Draft:	7.9 m (26 ft)
Armament:	6 torpedo tubes
Complement:	13 officers, 92 men

For other ships named Nautilus, see USS Nautilus and Ships named Nautilus.

In July 1951, following work by the physicist Philip Abelson, the U.S. Congress authorized the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine for the U.S. Navy. On December 121951 the U.S. Navy Department announced that the submarine would be called Nautilus – the sixth U.S. Navy vessel so named – and would carry the hull code SSN-571.

Nautilus' keel was laid at the Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut by Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, on June 14, 1952. She was christened on January 21, 1954 and launched into the Thames River, sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of Truman's successor Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nautilus was commissioned on September 30, 1954, under the command of Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, USN.

\"Underway on nuclear power\"

USS Nautilus during her initial sea trials, January 20, 1955.

Following her commissioning, Nautilus remained dockside for further construction and testing. At 1100 hours on January 17, 1955 she put to sea for the first time and signaled her historic message: "Underway on nuclear power." On May 10, she headed south for shakedown. Submerged throughout, she traveled 1,300 miles (2,100 km) from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico and covered 1,381 miles (2,223 km) 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 move out of an area in record time, change depth quickly and stay submerged for very long periods.

On February 4, 1957, Nautilus logged her 60,000th nautical mile (111,120 km), matching the endurance of 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 km, 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.

On 25 April 1958 she was underway again for the West Coast, now commanded by Commander William R. Anderson, USN. Stopping at San Diego, California, San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington, she began her history making Polar transit, operation "Sunshine," as she departed the latter port 9 June. On 19 June she entered the Chukchi Sea, but was turned back by deep draft 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 (EDST) she became the first ship to reach the geographic North Pole. From the North Pole, she continued on and after 96 hours and 1830 miles (2,945 km) under the ice, she surfaced northeast of Greenland, having completed the first successful submerged voyage across 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.

Proceeding from Greenland to Portland, England, she received the Presidential Unit Citation, the first ever issued in peace time, from American Ambassador J.H. Whitney, and then set a westerly course which put her into the Thames River estuary at New London 29 October. For the remainder of the year she operated from her homeport, New London, Connecticut.

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 homeport 16 December.

Nautilus operated in the Atlantic, conducting evaluation tests for ASW improvements, participating in NATO exercises and, during the fall of 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 moment that spring, logged her 300,000th mile (482,803 km) 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, following which 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. 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.

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. The historic ship Nautilus attracts some 250,000 visitors annually to her present berth near the Naval Submarine Base New London, at Groton's Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton Connecticut.

Nautilus celebrated the 50th anniversary of her commissioning on 30 September 2004 with a ceremony that included a speech from Commander Wilkinson, the first Commanding Officer of Nautilus, and a designation of the ship as an American Nuclear Society National Nuclear Landmark.

References

Drebbel's submarine (1620)

External links

• [US Navy Submarine Force Museum]: Official home of USS Nautilus
• [SSN571.com]: History and pictures of USS Nautilus
• [Nautilus Alumni Association]: Information for former Nautilus crewmembers

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