Today in History: World’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, is commissioned
After a career spanning 25 years and almost 800 000km steamed, the Nautilus was decommissioned on 3 March 1980.
The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, was commissioned by the United States Navy on this day in 1954.
The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of US Navy Captain Hyman Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born engineer who joined the US atomic programme in 1946. In 1947, he was put in charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion programme and began work on an atomic submarine.
Regarded as a fanatic by his detractors, Rickover succeeded in developing and delivering the world’s first nuclear submarine years ahead of schedule. In 1952, the Nautilus‘ keel was laid by President Harry Truman, and on 21 January 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the Thames River at Groton, Connecticut. Commissioned on 30 September 1954, it first ran under nuclear power on the morning of 17 January 1955.
Much larger than the diesel-electric submarines that preceded it, the Nautilus stretched 97m and displaced 3 180 tons. It could remain submerged for almost unlimited periods because its atomic engine needed no air and only a very small quantity of nuclear fuel.
The uranium-powered nuclear reactor produced steam that drove propulsion turbines, allowing the Nautilus to travel underwater at speeds in excess of 20 knots. In its early years of service, the USS Nautilus broke numerous submarine travel records and in August 1958 accomplished the first voyage under the geographical North Pole.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s first nuclear submarine went on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.
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