![]() ![]() On the morning of 17 January 1955, at 11 am EST, Nautilus' first Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. "Underway on nuclear power"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 nuclear fuel cladding 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. This design is the basis for nearly all of the US nuclear-powered submarine and surface combat ships, and was adapted by other countries for naval nuclear propulsion. 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 31 December 1947 to design a nuclear power plant for a submarine. ![]() Nautilus was powered by the Submarine Thermal Reactor (STR), later redesignated the S2W reactor, a pressurized water reactor produced for the US Navy by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. 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. ![]() Nautilus was delivered to the Navy in 1955.īecause her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. Eisenhower it was commissioned the following September into the United States Navy. Construction began in 1952, and the ship launched in January 1954, attended by Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States, wife of 34th President Dwight D. Sharing a name with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic 1870 science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II, the new nuclear-powered Nautilus was authorized in 1951. Her initial commanding officer was Eugene Parks "Dennis" Wilkinson, a widely respected naval officer who set the stage for many of the protocols of today's Nuclear Navy, and who had a storied career during military service and afterwards. USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958. Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). The story of the Nuclear Navy from its origins up to the present day is told through more than 1,300 images from official and archive sources, as well as the author's own personal collection, some of which have never been published before.USS Nautilus docked at the Submarine Force Library and Museum This highly illustrated book covers all of the 220+ submarine hulls built and delivered to the US Navy from the USS Nautilus through to the Navy's newest class of submarine, the Columbia class SSBNs. With the development of the USS Nautilus, the US Navy now had the ability to stay submerged for not just hours or days, but to hide out of harm's way for weeks or months at a time Until the advent of nuclear power, the world's submarine fleets traveled on the surface at night to charge their batteries, and only dove below the surface when enemy ships or planes were spotted. ![]() Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy” who oversaw the commissioning of the very first nuclear-powered attack submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN 571) in 1952. This program was developed under the command of Hiram G. Goodall covers the origins, design and development of the US Navy's fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. A highly illustrated history of the US Navy's nuclear submarine program, from the postwar years to the 2020 Columbia-class SSBNs. ![]()
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