The Nautilus SSN-571 is an operational submarine attached to the United States Navy. In addition to being the world's first nuclear-powered submarine to actually operate and enter service, it was also the first vessel to actually sail across the Arctic.
The idea of using nuclear energy as a power source for ships was first proposed by The World War II-era physicist Philip Ebelson, who wrote the world's first report on how to install a nuclear reactor in a submarine to provide both propulsion and power for submarine submarines.
In his report, he mentioned that the submarine could be used as a missile launch pad, which was equivalent to transforming the role of the submarine from a tactical attack ship to a strategic weapons platform.
Amberson's concept was supported by U.S. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, known as the "father of the nuclear navy," and prompted Congress to approve a paper construction bill in July 1951 authorizing the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine.
Later, on December 12, the U.S. Navy Department officially announced that the newly constructed submarine would be designated SSN-571 and named the Nautilus. It is the sixth U.S. vessel to use this name, and the third submarine to use this name.
The keel of the Nautilus was placed on June 14, 1952, at the Dock of the Electric Ships Division in Groton, Connecticut, by then-U.S. President Harry Truman (the "Electric Ships Division" was the predecessor of today's Electric Ships Company and the predecessor of the General Dynamics Group).
Its bottle-throwing baptism was carried out on January 21, 1954 by Marmie Eisenhower (wife of the successor U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower) and launched into the thames river. The Nautilus was commissioned later on 30 September, with the first captain being Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Wigginson.
The Nautilus did not go to sea immediately after its commissioning, but remained docked by the dock to continue construction and testing. It was not until 11 o'clock on January 17, 1955, that it officially set sail for the sea and sent a message that left its name as "underway on nuclear power".
On May 10, it began heading south to warm up the car, sailing from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in a fully submersible manner, with a range of 2,223 kilometers (1,381 miles) in less than 90 hours, breaking the world record for the longest submarine range and the fastest sustained submarine speed (at least 1 hour).
Between 1955 and 1957 , the Nautilus was continuously used in research to increase submarine speed and durability. A major breakthrough in its performance made the otherwise very effective anti-submarine warfare procedures accumulated during World War II obsolete and useless. Radar and anti-submarine aircraft, which were once considered anti-submarine weapons, also have a limited role in facing a submarine that can continue to dive at high speed, change depth quickly, and stay in the water for a long time.
On 4 February 1957, the Nautilus broke the record of 60,000 nautical miles (111,120 km), reaching the distance traveled by the fictional submarine of the same name in the famous 19th-century French novelist Jules Verne's famous science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In May of that year, it left the east coast of the United States for operation Home Run on the Pacific coast, a coastal exercise and fleet exercise operation whose primary purpose was to familiarize other units in the Pacific Fleet with the capabilities of nuclear-powered submarines.
The Nautilus returned to its home port, New London, Connecticut, on 21 July 1957 and sailed again on 19 August to begin its first 2,226-kilometre Arctic ice cap dive. It then traveled to the Eastern Atlantic to participate in NATO exercises and visited several British and French ports to be inspected by defense-related personnel from both countries.
On 25 April 1958, the Nautilus departed again for the West Coast of the United States, with the new captain being Lieutenant Colonel William Anderson. After stopping in San Diego, California, San Francisco, and Seattle, Washington, it began its historic polar voyage challenge, the U.S. Navy code-named Operation Sunshine.
The Nautilus left Port Of Seattle on June 9 and entered the Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) on June 19, but was forced to turn back because it encountered too much drift ice in shallow waters. On June 28, it sailed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where it paused to wait for the better walruses in the Arctic. On 23 July, the Nautilus set sail north and sneaked into the Barrow Valley on 1 August.
On August 3, 23:15, daylight saving time (edst) on the east coast arrived at the geographical North Pole, becoming the world's first ship to sail to the North Pole. Since the North Pole, it has continued to sail under the ice for 96 hours, 2,945 kilometers (1,830 miles), floating on the sea off northeast of Greenland, successfully completing the mission of submersible navigation across the Arctic.
The technical details required for the mission were drawn up by scientists at the Naval Electronics Laboratory, in which Dr. Waldo Lyon, from which Dr. Waldo Lyon, even personally boarded the ship to participate in the challenge, serving as the ship's scientific director and under-ice navigator.
After completing its mission, the Nautilus traveled from Greenland to Portland, England, where it was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by John Hay Whitney, the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, the first time in U.S. history that the award was awarded during the Chengping period.
After participating in fleet exercises in early 1959, the Nautilus entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, for its first complete overhaul since its inception, after which the crew underwent refresh training and set sail from New London on 24 October, joining the Sixth Fleet headquarters for the mediterranean for the first time and returning to its home port on 16 December.
During the Cuban crisis in the autumn of 1962, the Nautilus also participated in the embargo and blockade mission against Cuba, which lasted until August 1963, when it began a two-month trip eastward to the Mediterranean Sea. On the way back it participated in a number of fleet exercises and visited portsmouth naval shipyard again on 17 January 1964 and underwent a second overhaul.
In the spring of 1979, the Nautilus set sail from Groton on its final voyage, arriving on May 26, 1979, at the Mare Island naval shipyard in Vallejo, California. It was finally decommissioned on 3 March 1980 and deregistered from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register.
In 2002, the Nautilus underwent a five-month, $4.7 million preservation project in the docks of the General Dynamics Electric Vessels Division, which was later opened to the public as a submarine history museum.
The water displacement is 3533 tons, the underwater displacement is 4092 tons, the length of the boat is 98 meters, the width is 8.5 meters, and the draft is 7.9 meters; 1 s2w pressurized water reactor, 2 steam turbines; the water speed is 22 knots, the underwater speed is 23.3 knots; the diving depth is 150-230 meters; and the establishment is 105 people.
Six 533 mm hk-54 hydrostatic torpedo tubes, carrying a total of 24 torpedoes, of which 6 were equipped in torpedo tubes and 18 were spare.