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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that dives deep into the stories of everyday history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the innovative Cold War era submarine that turned the maritime

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Speaker 1: branch of the U. S. Armed Forces into the world's

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Speaker 1: first nuclear navy. The day was September four. The U. S.

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Speaker 1: S Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered submarine, was accepted

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Speaker 1: into active service by the U. S. Navy. It was

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Speaker 1: commissioned at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, and

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Speaker 1: placed under the command of Naval Officer Eugene P. Wilkinson.

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Speaker 1: The Nautilus was an appealing piece of hardware for a

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Speaker 1: naval commander, as the ship's atomic engine and ability to

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Speaker 1: make oxygen from seawater allowed it to stay submerged indefinitely.

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Speaker 1: The submarines used in World War Two had to surface

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Speaker 1: every twelve to forty eight hours, but the Nautilus could

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Speaker 1: remain underwater for two weeks or more at a time,

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Speaker 1: only needing to resurface to restock its food supply. This

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Speaker 1: gave it a major tactical advantage over traditional diesel powered submarines,

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Speaker 1: as the Nautilus could simply lie in wait until the

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Speaker 1: noisier enemy ships revealed themselves. As Commander Wilkinson later explained, quote,

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Speaker 1: eventually they would have to run their diesel and when

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Speaker 1: they did, my sonar Man would hear them, and we'd

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Speaker 1: sneak up on them, and the world was ours. The

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Speaker 1: Nautilus was developed as part of the Navy's nuclear propulsion program.

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Speaker 1: A group of scientists and engineers under the command of

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Speaker 1: Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover began work on the atomic

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Speaker 1: submarine in n seven, at the dawn of the Cold War.

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Speaker 1: The design they settled on was considerably larger and heavier

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Speaker 1: than the diesel electric submarines of the era. It measured

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Speaker 1: three hundred and nineteen feet in length and displaced three thousand,

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Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty tons of water. The ship's size

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Speaker 1: was a necessary consequence of its unconventional power source. Although

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Speaker 1: it required only a small amount of uranium fuel to operate,

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Speaker 1: the nuclear reactor still took up a good deal of space,

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Speaker 1: especially when you factor in the propulsion turbines that were

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Speaker 1: driven by the steam it produced. There was also added

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Speaker 1: weight from the thick paneling used to protect against possible

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Speaker 1: radiation contamination. That said, the speed of the Nautilus more

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Speaker 1: than made up for its cumbersome size. When submerged, it

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Speaker 1: could reach speeds and excess of twenty knots, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to its atomic engine, it could sustain those speeds for

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Speaker 1: incredibly long periods. Satisfied with Rickover's proposal, Congress authorized the

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Speaker 1: construction of a nuclear powered submarine Jil Lie of nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty one. Five months later, the Navy Department announced the

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Speaker 1: name of the experimental vessel. It would be called the Nautilus,

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Speaker 1: the sixth the Navy ship to sail under that name.

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Speaker 1: As with those other ships, the name was likely a

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Speaker 1: nod to Jules Verne's classic science fiction novel twenty Thousand

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Speaker 1: Leagues Under the Sea, published in eighteen seventy. The book

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Speaker 1: recounted the voyages of Captain Nemo, an enigmatic visionary who

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Speaker 1: explored the depths of the seas, and his battery powered submarine,

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Speaker 1: the Nautilus. The Navy's use of the name was a fitting,

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Speaker 1: if not obvious choice for a sub powered by atomic energy.

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Speaker 1: Nemos Nautilus was viewed as a technological marvel of its age,

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Speaker 1: just as theirs would be in the nineteen fifties. Despite

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Speaker 1: the many challenges of the project, Captain Rickover and his

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Speaker 1: team managed to build and deliver the world's first nuclear

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Speaker 1: vessel several years ahead of schedule. The keel of the Nautilus,

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Speaker 1: the part of hull on which the rest of a

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Speaker 1: ship is built, was laid by President Harry Truman in

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Speaker 1: June of nineteen fifty two. Construction took the better part

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Speaker 1: of two years, but on January twenty one, nineteen fifty four,

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Speaker 1: the vessel was finally ready to be launched into the

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Speaker 1: Thames River in Groton, Connecticut. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower was

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Speaker 1: on hand for the occasion and even christened the ship

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Speaker 1: by breaking a bottle of champagne across its bow. The

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Speaker 1: Nautilus remained dock side for the next nine months as

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Speaker 1: further preparations and sea trials were conducted to ensure everything

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Speaker 1: was working properly. The Nautilus crew and the ship itself

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Speaker 1: performed successfully, and on September nineteen fifty four, they were

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Speaker 1: officially commissioned as an active unit of the U. S. Navy.

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Speaker 1: Despite this preliminary acceptance, the Nautilus remained docked for further

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Speaker 1: testing for the rest of the year. Once the all

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Speaker 1: clear was given, the Nautilus was ready to embark on

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Speaker 1: its maiden voyage. On the morning of January seventeen, nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty five, Commander Wilkinson ordered all lines cast off and

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Speaker 1: signaled a historic message under way on nuclear power. Over

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Speaker 1: the next several years, the submarine was put through its

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Speaker 1: paces in a series of extensive trials meant to test

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Speaker 1: the limits of its power supply. Along the way, the

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Speaker 1: Nautilus broke every record on the books relating to submerged

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Speaker 1: speed and distance. It also underwent a battery of torpedo

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Speaker 1: firing tests and other trials meant to gauge its effectiveness

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Speaker 1: in combat. The findings were conclusive. Anti submarine warfare tactics

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Speaker 1: that had proved effective during World War Two had little,

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Speaker 1: if any effect against the Nautilus. The nuclear powered sub

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Speaker 1: set another seemingly impossible record during the summer of nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty eight. It's top secret mission, known as Operations Sunshine,

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Speaker 1: was to make the first crossing of the North Pole

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Speaker 1: by ship. The Nautilus departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on July

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Speaker 1: twenty three and set course for Point Barrow, Alaska. From there,

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Speaker 1: the Nautilus dove underwater and traveled submerged for nearly a

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Speaker 1: thousand miles underneath the Arctic ice cap. The one hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixteen man crew stayed the course for nearly a

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Speaker 1: week until finally, on August third, nineteen fifty eight, they

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Speaker 1: arrived at the geographic North Pole ninety degrees north. Reaching

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Speaker 1: the top of the world was a tremendous feat and

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Speaker 1: one that wouldn't have been possible with any other vessel

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Speaker 1: in service at the time. Even once its record setting

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Speaker 1: days were behind it, the Nautilus continued to serve as

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Speaker 1: a blueprint for the more modern nuclear powered submarines that

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Speaker 1: followed it, and while Captain Nemo ultimately blew up his Nautilus,

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Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy was a little more savvy with theirs,

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Speaker 1: and the spring of nineteen eighty the U. S. S.

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Speaker 1: Nautilus was decommissioned after nearly twenty five years of active

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Speaker 1: service and more than five hundred thousand miles reversed at sea.

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Speaker 1: Two years later, the submarine was designated as a National

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Speaker 1: Historical Landmark. It was converted into a historic museum ship

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Speaker 1: in Mare Island in California, and then towed back to

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Speaker 1: the port of its birth in Groton, Connecticut. The Nautilus,

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Speaker 1: now a floating library and museum, was opened for public

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Speaker 1: viewing in Visitors can still climb aboard today to get

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Speaker 1: an up close look at the vessel that changed the

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Speaker 1: course of naval warfare. You'll want to get off if

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Speaker 1: it starts to dive, though it's not supposed to do

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Speaker 1: that anymore. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's episode, consider keeping up with us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can find us at

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Speaker 1: a line anytime by writing to This Day at iHeart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. Thanks to Chandler May for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again soon for another day in History class