Submerged throughout, she traveled 1,100 nmi (2,000 km 1,300 mi) from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico and covered 1,200 nmi (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 10 May, she headed south for shakedown. 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 S1W at the Naval Reactors 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 a 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. Nautilus was commissioned on 30 September 1954, under the command of Commander Eugene P. She was christened on 21 January 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. Nautilus 's reactor core prototype at the S1W facility in Idaho She benefited from the Greater Underwater Propulsion Power (GUPPY) improvements to the American Gato-, Balao-, and Tench-class submarines.

The boat carried the hull number SSN-571. Rickover, USN, known as the 'Father of the Nuclear Navy.' On 12 December 1951, the US Department of the Navy announced that the submarine would be called Nautilus, the fourth 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. The conceptual design of the first nuclear submarine began in March 1950 as project SCB 64. Rickover aboard the Nautilus Launching Nautilus Planning and construction Admiral Hyman G.

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 boat was launched in January 1954, sponsored 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 'Dennis' Wilkinson, a widely respected naval officer who set the stage for many of the protocols of today's Nuclear Navy of the US, 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. STR nuclear reactor (later redesignated S2W), geared steam turbines, two shafts Mamie Eisenhower ( First Lady of the United States) The retired USS Nautilus heads home on, after preservation by the Electric Boat Division

Nautilus submarine museum ct