LAST UPDATED 8/26/10

 

USS NAUTILUS (SSN571) was the first atomic submarine. Prior to NAUTILUS we had submersible vessels that could run underwater for a short period of time, but had to surface to charge the batteries and replenish the breathing air.   NAUTILUS was a real submarine. We surfaced every four years to let the crew re-inlist!

In 1958 we took NAUTILUS under the North Pole.

If you would like to read a few paragraphs from my book about that trip under the ice pack click here   If you would like to purchase a soft back First Edition of my book for only $ 9.95 click here

• Recent video of Admiral Wilkinson, first skipper of Nautilus
• Mamie Eisenhower christened NAUTILUS in January 1954. Here is the invitation and her acceptance
• When General Dynamic, the builder, learned that Mamie Eisenhower would christen NAUTILUS January 1954, they sent her this letter.
• Mamie Eisenhower sent us this picture for the launching of NAUTILUS
• Everything has a beginning. A launching is as good a place as any to start. See NAUTILUS enter the water for the first time.
• Here is a 1950's newsreel showing the launching and later events.
• Here is a copy of the cover on the launching program.
• We did our training at the S1W Site in Arco, Idaho
• NAUTILUS and Admiral Rickover are synonymous. Read a little about our Admiral.
• To be eligible for Nuclear Training I had to re-enlist in the United States Navy.
• NAUTILUS must run slow on the surface or we'll dive automatically.
• 1955, A picture of Nautilus making an emergency surface.
• Here is a biography of our first skipper, Eugene P. Wilkinson
• February 4, 1957 the Whitehouse announced NAUTILUS had steamed 20,000 leagues under the sea.
• January 17, 1958 President Eisenhower sent a letter to Captain Anderson congratulating him on the success of the first trip to the Arctic
• Dr. Waldo Lyon briefed us about ice conditions in the Arctic, just after we left Seattle.
• After failing for a second time to make it under the North Pole in 1958, we layed over in Hawaii, waiting for the ice conditions to change, so that we could try again. Here is a picture of NAUTILUS tied along side the pier in Pearl Harbor
• Secret notes taken at a White House conversation with Captain Anderson in July 1957
• We surfaced at the edge of the icepack to make one last check of our position and to replenish the air inside the hull.
• Here is a map of the transpolar Arctic Route we established in August of 1958.
• We created a post office as we passed under the North Pole and canceled our letters with a home-made North Pole Stamp. The Post Master General later declared it to be a legal post office. You can take a look at one of these canceled envelopes.Along with the envelopes, we also made a post card for everyone on board.
• As we passed under the North Pole Santa Claus came aboard through one of the forward torpedo tubes and berated the Captain for spreading garbage and waste all over his lawn.
• Under the pole, the Captain composed a letter to President Eisenhower. Here is a reproduction of the actual letter and envelope
• While still under the ice pack we made up a transpolar fact sheet
• Ambassador Whitney greeted us in Portland, England; our first port after the North Pole crossing
• NAUTILUS entered New York harbor for a huge ticker tape parade down Broadway.
• Our ticker tape parade was memorialized in a banner imbedded into the sidewalk in New York City
• President Eisenhower presented Captain Anderson with the Legion Of Merit and NAUTILUS was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in August 1958 for completion of the voyage under the North Pole. This was the first time this award had been given for a non-combat mission.
• Here is a copy of the Captain's biography prepared for his White House meeting.
• A bunch of the kids from the Seattle Children's Home visited NAUTILUS while we were in Seattle, Washington. After the completion of the North Pole trip they sent me this letter
• Captain Anderson was put on the cover of Life Magazine September 1,1958 issue
• Here are a bunch of Nautilus pictures taken by LIFE photographers
• French President De Gaul congratulated President Eisenhower about our achievement
• In1959 the United States Post Office issued a commemorative stamp for Arctic Exploration. NAUTILUS was featured.
• In 1959 Richfield Gasoline used Nautilus in an advertisement
• One hundred and sixteen crew members made that final and successful trip under the ice pack in August of 1958. Although we're all getting older, many of us continue to survive our aches and pains and attend reunions every couple of years. Maybe one of your relatives, friends or neighbors was on board as we went under the North Pole. Here is a list of the crew members and civilian technicians that went with us.
• Here is a link to the Alumni Home Page, where you can find the names of everyone that has ever served aboard NAUTILUS.
• The wives of the crew members were invited to go to sea for a day. Each was then issued a special card to acknowledge their trip
• Engine men, like me, had a tough time getting promoted to the next rating in the Nuclear Program.
• Prior to his death, my father worked as an accountant for an oil refinery in Providence, Rhode Island. After the announcement of our successful completion of the North Pole trip, publicity people at the refinery published a picture of my father and I looking at the September1,1958 issue of Life Magazine.
• There was a diesel submarine named NAUTILUS (SS168) that operated during WW2. It was a very large submarine; almost 60 feet longer than other designs of the time.
• At least three submarines carried the name NAUTILUS. Here is a comparison. of their hull shapes.
• Check here for some background on NAUTILUS
• The last Captain of Nautilus was Captain Riddell. Read his comments about Nautilus
• We didn't surface at the North Pole, but the second nuclear submarine SKATE (SS578) did. See her on the surface, having just broken through the ice.
• NAUTILUS is a museum now. You can see her at the submarine museum in Groton Connecticut.
• You can take a virtual tour of NAUTILUS
• You tube has a film of Nautilus returning to New York after the North Pole Trip
• You tube has a second film clip of Nautilus
• Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell issued the following statement celebrating the 50th anniversary of our trip under the North Pole.
• In 1931 a retired diesel submarine, Nautilus (O12), tried unsuccessfully to get to the North Pole. Here is a link to a picture of that crew
• Here is a picture of our NAUTILUS flag in space

The first boat I ever served on was a WW2 type fleet boat that had been converted to a guppy snorkel design. The boat was named USS TORSK (SS423) and you can see my old home if you are ever in Baltimore Maryland. You'll find TORSK tied up along side a pier in the harbor.

My second boat was named USS BURRFISH (SSR312). BURRFISH was designed to operate as a Radar Picket in the North Atlantic.BURRFISH was the first of the "Stealth" vessels the US built to monitor Russian aircraft and marine activity in the Arctic region. Prior to BURRFISH surface vessels had similar missions, but they were easily detected by aircraft and ship's radar. We could submerge and hide. Note all of the Radar antennas sticking out the top of the 312 boat. We were a first class spy ship in the early 50s

• My full time naval career started when I received the infamous "greetings" from my local draft board informing that I had been drafted into the US Army.
• I attended basic Submarine School in 1952. 

• TORSK Home Page lists the names of the crew members and has lots of pictures .
• Additional Torsk pictures
• This web page documents TORSK history
• TORSK is now in the Maritime museum in Baltimore
• Here I am in 1954, in my lookout station on the starboard side.
• In August of 1955 we made our 8000th dive. on TORSK "The divingist boat in the US Navy
• Take a look at my first home, the "guppy snorkel" TORSK and learn a few facts about the boat.
• In 1955 we had a ship's party and took pictures of the TORSK crew, wives and girlfriends.
• I've assembled a little information about BURRFISH, if you want to learn more about the boat.

• Here are some great interior views of a WWII fleet boat
• Take a look at the latest submarine classes
• Here are some great sea stories by Bob "Dex" Armstrong click here
• Here is a complete listing of our nuclear boats and their skippers
• The first real submarine was Bushnell's TURTLE
• Robert Fulton built the first submarine named NAUTILUS. You can read his contract with the French Government here
• Did you know that past President George Bush was picked up by a US submarine after his aircraft was shot down by the Japanese in WW2? Would you like to see the actual report filed by Finback (SS230) that day? If so click here

• President Jimmy Carter served on submarines in the early 50s. Visit this page if you would like to read about his interview with Admiral Rickover and learn a little about his submarine experience.
• Here is a picture of President Carter and Admiral Rickover aboard the submarine Los Angles
• Probably the most famous Submarine of WW2 was USS TANG (SS306) Her skipper LCDR Richard O' Kane was awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor for his last patrol.
• Want to visit a submarine museum ? Click here for their locations
• Here is another web site showing all of the current submarine museums in the United States
• Did you ever wonder where some of those Naval Terms and Expressions came from?
• Submarine sailors wear dolphins. They don't give them to you when you put on a sailor suit. They have to be earned, and it's not easy
• To see the names of shipmates lost on Thresher (SSN593)To see the names of shipmates lost on Scorpion (SSN589)
• Does it come as a surprise to you that at one time we built a midget submarine?
• youtube has a film of the world's quietest submarine.
• Here is a short film of submarine escape tank training