Probably the two most significant submarines to have joined the U.S. Fleet were the USS Holland (SS-1) in 1900 and the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) in 1954. Both were firsts—the first submarine to be
placed in commission by the U.S. Navy and the world's first nuclear-propelled vehicle.
The pedigrees of the two undersea craft, however, were radically different. The Holland, propelled on the surface by a gasoline engine and submerged by an electric motor, was the sixth submarine design of Irish-emigrant school teacher John P. Holland. At the time similar, relatively primitive undersea craft were being developed in Britain, France, Russia, and Spain. She was soon followed by improved submarines built for the U.S. Navy with Holland himself selling similar designs overseas.
The origins of the USS Nautilus date back to a 17 March 1939 meeting at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., when Dr. Enrico Fermi (the world's leading authority on the properties of neutrons, who had come close to discovering nuclear fission in 1934), Captain Hollis Cooley (head of the NRL), and Dr. Ross Gunn, a physicist and head of the laboratory's mechanical and electrical division, met to discuss recent developments in atomic science. Three days later Cooley and Gunn outlined a plan for a "fission chamber" that would generate steam to operate a turbine for a submarine power plant. The laboratory was authorized to spend $1,500 to initiate research into the concept?the first money to be spent by the U.S. government on nuclear fission.
Subsequently, Navy interest in this area was sidetracked during World War II as all relevant technical expertise was applied to the Manhattan Project—the development of atomic bombs. Interestingly, in August 1944, Brigadier General Leslie Groves, head of the project, appointed a five-man committee to look into potential nondestructive uses of atomic energy. Dr. Richard C. Tolman, the long-time dean of the California Institute of Technology's graduate school and chief scientific adviser to Groves, was named to head the committee with the other members being two naval officers and two civilians. The influence of the naval officers—Rear Admiral Earle W. Mills, the assistant chief of the Bureau of Ships, and Captain Thorwald A. Solberg, also of the bureau—would be considerable.
According to Groves:
One of the primary reasons why I appointed this committee was to have on the record a formal recommendation that a vigorous program looking towards an atomic powered submarine should be initiated when available personnel permitted. I wanted Mills on the committee to make certain that he, Tolman, and Solberg did just that.1
That fall the committee visited the NRL and listened to Gunn and Dr. Philip A. Abelson of the Carnegie Institution, then age 28 and codiscoverer of Element 93, neptunium. Abelson urged that a nuclear-powered submarine be given high priority in the committee's report. Tolman submitted the formal report in December 1944—seven months before the first atomic bomb was detonated—proposing "the government should initiate and push, as an urgent project, research and development studies to provide power from nuclear sources for the propulsion of naval vessels."
A year later, with the war over, the subject of atomic energy for ship propulsion received public attention when the Senate established the Special Committee on Atomic Energy. In reporting the committee's hearings, The New York Times of 14 December 1945, quoted Gunn declaring "the main job of nuclear energy is to turn the world's wheels and run its ships." The Times also mentioned the possibility of "cargo submarines driven by atomic power."
Vice Admiral Mills, now head of the Bureau of Ships, sent a team-led by Captain Hyman G. Rickover-to the Oak Ridge nuclear facility and other individuals to firms looking into nuclear energy. However, in the postwar era the tentative steps of the Manhattan Project and, from 1 January 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission, to move into new, non-weapon areas for nuclear energy frustrated supporters of nuclear propulsion. Accordingly, in September 1947, Mills appointed Rickover as his special assistant for nuclear matters and de facto head of the embryonic Navy nuclear-propulsion program. Backing by then-Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and other senior officers accelerated research into nuclear propulsion. The fiscal year 1951 shipbuilding program provided funding for the world's first nuclear submarine.
Under Rickover's relentless drive, a land prototype reactor plant was built and then the submarine herself was laid down at the Electric Boat yard in Groton, Connecticut, on 14 June 1952. President Harry S. Truman officiated at the keel laying, with the submarine's construction being highly publicized. The submarine was christened Nautilus on 21 January 1954, by Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower, wife of the President, and was placed in commission on 30 September 1954.
The Nautilus was "underway on nuclear power"—the historic message flashed from her bridge by Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson—on 17 January 1955. The Nautilus quickly proved that she was not just a better submarine, but also a radically different kind of warship. The submarine's trials were highly successful, including a record submerged run of 1,381 nautical miles from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 90 hours-an average of 15.3 knots. This was the fastest submerged transit yet undertaken by a submarine. Subsequently faster submerged passages were made, averaging close to her maximum speed of just over 23 knots.
In exercises she demonstrated the value of nuclear propulsion for submarines. The Nautilus could close with an enemy or escape at will, being maneuverable in three dimensions, regardless of surface weather conditions. She could even outrun available U.S. antisubmarine homing torpedoes. Unlike high-speed submarines of the Type XXI, GUPPY, or Tang (SS-563) designs, the captain of the Nautilus did not have to concern himself with remaining battery power; he could steam at high speeds for days or even weeks rather than minutes or perhaps hours.
Her greatest operational achievement came 50 years ago this summer, in August 1958. Under her second skipper, Commander William R. Anderson, and having been fitted with special cameras, compass, and sonar, on 29 July the Nautilus submerged under the Arctic ice in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. She steamed northward and, on 3 August became the first ship in history to reach the geographic North Pole.2 Remaining submerged, with the 116 men on board sailing in unequaled comfort compared with previous Arctic explorers, the boat proceeded southeast and reached open water after four days under the ice, traveling 1,830 nautical miles with a completely closed atmosphere.3 Shortly after reaching the pole, Anderson sent another historic message—Nautilus 90 North.
The pioneering sub surfaced near Greenland, having made the long-fabled Arctic passage—under the ice. There a helicopter picked up Anderson, flew him to the U.S. air base in Iceland, and a transport whisked him to Washington, D.C. There he was decorated in a White House ceremony at which President Dwight D. Eisenhower revealed the polar operation. Anderson was then flown back to his submarine for the triumphant entry of the Nautilus into Portland, England.4 Upon her return to the United States the Nautilus entered New York Harbor (at this writing the only nuclear-propelled ship to have visited the city). There Anderson led his crew, accompanied by then-Rear Admiral Rickover, in a ticker-tape parade.5
The Nautilus was soon joined in the U.S. Fleet by additional nuclear-propelled submarines. The Soviet Union followed the United States in this category, with its first nuclear boat, the K-3 (later named Leninsky Komsomol), being completed in 1959; the British Dreadnought, was completed in 1962 (with a U.S. reactor plant); the French Le Redoutable in 1971; and the Chinese Han class in 1974. In total, almost 500 nuclear submarines have been completed, with all five of these nations currently having additional nuclear boats under construction.
While subsequent nuclear submarines have been significantly quieter, faster, deeper diving, and far more heavily armed than the USS Nautilus, that submarine was the first.
1. Memorandum from BGEN Leslie Groves, USA, in Atomic Energy File, Navy Operational Archives, Washington, D.C. [undated].
2. The Nautilus reached the North Pole at 2315 Washington time. The first submarine to surface at the North Pole was the USS Skate (SSN-578), on 17 March 1959.
3. The Nautilus was manned by a crew of 14 officers and 98 enlisted men, and additionally carried two civilian Arctic experts and two civilian engineers to care for the submarine's intricate inertial navigation system.
4. Anderson recorded these adventures in Nautilus 90 North (Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing, 1959).
5. Rickover was promoted to vice admiral on 24 October 1958, and to admiral on 3 December 1973.