Artists from the Walt Disney Studios designed the ship's patch worn by crew members
of the USS Nautilus.
In 1959, Disneyland's "Submarine Voyage" attraction in Anaheim, CA, featured
the USS Nautilus' 1958 trip under the polar ice caps and North Pole.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy.
At 11:15pm on August 3, 1958, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571)—the U.S. Navy's first operational nuclear powered submarine— successfully reached 90 degrees North. In doing so, it completed the first-ever submerged transit of the geographic North Pole.
The U.S. Congress authorized construction of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine in July 1951, after the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission (led by Hyman G. Rickover) successfully developed a nuclear propulsion plant that could be fitted to a submarine. On June 14, 1952, President Harry S. Truman laid down Nautilus' keel in Groton, CT. Nautilus launched on January 21, 1954, and the U.S. Navy commissioned the submarine on September 30, 1954. Nautilus was "underway on nuclear power" for the first time on January 17, 1955, under the command of Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson.
In 1955, Nautilus conducted sea trials which included a record-breaking Connecticut-to-Puerto Rico "shakedown" submerged cruise (completed in less than 90 hours at an average speed of 16 knots). The submarine then participated in several years of exercises and testing off the U.S. east and west coasts and visited several European ports.
In the late 1950s, Nautilus played a critical role in the Cold War as tensions increased between the United States and Soviet Union. The sub's ability to remain submerged longer and travel faster than diesel-electric subs potentially opened huge expanses of the ice-covered Arctic ocean to the U.S. Navy. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the U.S. Navy to secretly attempt the first-ever transit of the North Pole, symbolically proving that the United States could position its forthcoming submarine-launched ballistic missiles on the Soviet's doorstep. After two earlier aborted attempts, Nautilus and its 116-man crew (under the command of Commander William R. Anderson) departed Pearl Harbor, HI, for the polar ice cap on July 23, 1958. Anderson ordered Nautilus to dive on August 1, near Point Barrow, AK. At 11:15pm on August 3, Nautilus' gyroscopic compass indicated the sub was at 90 degrees North—the geographic North Pole. After 96 hours and 1,830 miles under the ice, Nautilus surfaced near Greenland on August 5.
Once surfaced, Anderson sent a short, encoded message—"Nautilus 90 North." Following receipt of that message, President Eisenhower publicly announced the successful completion of "Operation Sunshine" and awarded Nautilus a Presidential Unit Citation. He awarded Commander Anderson (who flew to Washington, DC, from Iceland) a Legion of Merit. Following a parade in New York City, NY, the sub returned home to New London, CT, on August 29, 1958.
In the years following its trip under the Arctic ice, Nautilus participated in North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercises in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, participated in the October 1962 naval quarantine of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and tested technologies for the future nuclear submarines. The historic sub's last voyage ended at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on May 20, 1982, where it was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on March 3, 1980. Nautilus became a National Historic Landmark on May 20, 1982. The Navy towed it to Groton, CT, in 1985, and it opened to the public as part of the Submarine Force Museum on April 11, 1986.
You can learn more about the USS Nautilus and other submarines using census data and records. For example:
The flag-draped USS Nautilus launched into the Thames River, Groton, CT, on January 21, 1954, approximately 19 months after
President Harry S. Truman laid its keel. Nautilus was commissioned on September 30, 1954, under the command of Eugene P. Wilkinson.
It remained in service until the U.S. Navy decommissioned and struck it from the Naval Vessel Register on March 3, 1980.
Nautilus opened to the public as part of the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, CT, on April 11, 1986.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the Shipboard Enumeration Operation to accurately count U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel and merchant marines with a U.S. homeport during the 2010 Census.
The Census Bureau sent Shipboard Census Reports to 1,071 military and maritime vessels and received 88,479 completed forms.
After removing 36,615 respondents who reported a "usual home elsewhere," the Census Bureau added data for 51,864 respondents aboard 434 vessels that would not otherwise be collected.
On March 1, 1790, President George Washington signed an act to take the United States' first census as of August 2, 1790.
From 1790 to 1820, the United States conducted the census as of the first Monday in August. It moved to June in 1830, (June 2 in 1890), April 15 in 1910, and January 1 in 1920.
"Census Day" has been April 1, since 1930.
In 1775, Connecticut inventor David Bushnell developed the first submersible vessel used in combat.
Piloted by Continental Army Sergeant Ezra Lee, Bushnell's Turtle attempted to attach a torpedo to British Admiral Lord Richard Howe's flagship HMS Eagle as it lay anchored in New York Harbor the night of September 6–7, 1776. River currents and difficulties with attaching the bomb to the Royal Navy warship forced Lee to abandon the attack.
Turtle unsuccessfully attempted to attack several other British ships in the days that followed before the British sunk it (along with the sloop carrying it) near Fort Lee, NJ.
Image courtesy of the Vermont Historical Society.