ARCTIC MISSION
90 North by Airship and Submarine
$39.95 List Price
$31.96 Member Price
- Home
- About
- Membership
- News Room
-
Content
Proceedings
May 2012
Naval History
May 2012
-
Books
Best Selling Books
- Conferences
- Archives
- Photos
- Donate
Search for Books
Store
Your tax-deductible gift to the Naval Institute Press underwrites worthy books that might not otherwise be published.
ARCTIC MISSION
Full Description:
To help salve the sting of orbiting Sputniks, the United States needed a dramatic demonstration of technological prowess; early in 1958, the White House ordered a top secret under-ice transit of the Arctic Ocean—Pacific to Atlantic—via the North Pole. And that spring, the Office of Naval Research initiated a unique project: to assess whether non-rigid airships (blimps) could support field parties deployed in the Arctic. This book recounts two successful missions. In August, the nuclear submarine Nautilus (SSN 571) reached 90 North and, continuing under ice, logged the first deep-ocean transit of the basin. En route to rendezvous with an IGY drifting station on T-3, an ice island, U.S. Navy airship BUNO 126719 became the sole military airship to cross the Arctic Circle. This work is based on first-hand accounts, including journal excerpts from Dr. Waldo Lyon—a force behind U.S. under-ice submarine development.
William F. Althoff, an environmental geologist and former Ramsey Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, is the author of five books of naval history. He resides in New Jersey.
Praise for Arctic Mission
“Althoff’s fascinating account of the voyage, so detailed you’d think he’d been along for the ride…”
— Air and Space Magazine, December 2011/January 2012
“A fascinating account of the U.S. Navy’s arctic work in 1958. William Althoff tells the well-known story of Nautilus 90 North with new material added. That story is interwoven with the virtually forgotten pioneering flight into the arctic at the same time. The suspense relating to operational problems, particularly for the blimp, makes excellent reading.”
—CAPT. ROBERT D. MCWETHY, USN (RET.), submariner and “Arctic Mission” advocate
“This is an eminently informative account of three major arctic engagements undertaken by the United States in 1958, the International Geophysical Year. The transit of the Arctic Ocean by the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus, the arctic flight of a U.S. Navy airship, and the research station BRAVO on Ice Island T-3 were extraordinary initiatives that contributed significantly to the understanding of the geophysics of the Arctic Ocean. This work, by veteran naval historian William Althoff, is a unique and important addition to the recent history of arctic exploration. It is a revised, updated re-release of the author's Arctic Mission first published in 2000.”
— A. E. COLLIN, oceanographer, Ice Island T-3, 1958
“Bill Althoff has put his life into arctic research and with this new volume he again demonstrates his expertise. His contribution to the chronicling of our country's airship and submarine explorations of the arctic is invaluable. This is a monumentally important historical volume.”
—MAYNARD M. MILLER, geoscientist and former director of the Glaciological and Arctic Sciences Institute for the University of Idaho
