The improvements rendered the progress made in anti-submarine warfare during World War II virtually obsolete. 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.įrom 1955 to 1957, Nautilus continued to be used to investigate the effects of increased submerged speeds and endurance. Submerged throughout, she traveled 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km 1,300 mi) from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico and covered 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km 1,400 mi) in less than ninety hours. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, “Underway On Nuclear Power.” On May 10, she headed south for shakedown. On the morning of January 17, 1955, at 11 am EST, Nautilus‘ first Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. Launch of USS Nautilus (SSN-571) on January 21, 1954.įollowing her commissioning, Nautilus remained dockside for further construction and testing. Nautilus‘ ship’s patch was designed by The Walt Disney Company, and her wardroom currently displays a set of tableware made of zirconium, as the reactor core was partly made of zirconium. The first actual prototype (for Nautilus) was constructed and tested by the Argonne National Laboratory in 1953 at the S1W facility, part of the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. nuclear-powered submarine and surface combat ships, and was adapted by other countries for naval nuclear propulsion. ![]() This design is the basis for nearly all of the U.S. Nuclear power had the crucial advantage in submarine propulsion because it is a zero-emission process that consumes no air. Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, operated by Westinghouse, developed the basic reactor plant design used in Nautilus after being given the assignment on December 31, 1947, to design a nuclear power plant for a submarine. Navy by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Nautilus was powered by the Submarine Thermal Reactor (STR), later redesignated the S2W reactor, a pressurized water reactor produced for the U.S. Nautilus was commissioned on September 30, 1954, under the command of Commander Eugene P. She was christened on January 21, 1954, and launched into the Thames River, sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower. Nautilus‘s keel was laid at General Dynamics’ Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut by Harry S. The Nautilus benefited from the GUPPY improvements to the American Gato-, Balao-, and Tench-class submarines. The boat carried the hull number SSN-571. ![]() ![]() Department of the Navy announced that the submarine would be called Nautilus, the fourth U.S. Rickover, USN, known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” On December 12, 1951, the U.S. Navy, which was planned and personally supervised by Captain (later Admiral) Hyman G. In July 1951, the United States Congress authorized the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine for the U.S. USS Nautilus (SSN-571) approaching Manhattan, New York The submarine has been preserved as a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives around 250,000 visitors per year. Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines. ![]() In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. Final construction was completed in 1955.īecause her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than the then current diesel-electric submarines previously, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. Eisenhower, and commissioned the following September into the United States Navy. Sharing names with Captain Nemo’s fictional submarine in Jules Verne’s classic 1870 science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and named after another USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II, the new atomic powered Nautilus was authorized in 1951, with laying down for construction in 1952 and launched in January 1954, attended by Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States, wife of 34th President Dwight D. On August 3, 1958, the world’s first operational nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), became the first vessel to complete a submerged transit of the geographical North Pole.
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