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USS NAUTILUS (SSN-571) descended from a long line of proud fighting ships. NAUTILUS first appeared on the Navy List as a schooner of twelve guns. Under the command of Lt. Richard Somers, she was with Commodore Preble's squadron in the Mediterranean during the campaign against the Tripolitan pirates. Her battle plaque was inscribed with the names Tripoli and Derne from this early war of our infant Navy. She continued in service until she was captured by a British squadron at the outbreak of the War of 1812.
NAUTILUS next appeared as a schooner which was commissioned in 1847 and played a role in the war with Mexico.
In 1911, NAUTILUS made her first appearance in the submarine force, although later that year her name was changed to H-2. Built in San Francisco, she saw service until 1922.
During World War I, the name and tradition were carried on by a Motor Patrol Boat commissioned in 1917 and assigned to patrol and escort duty.
The fifth NAUTILUS (SS168), was built at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1930 and was one of the largest submarines ever built for our Navy. With the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, NAUTILUS quickly joined the fight and established the reputation which was to characterize her through the next three years of combat. On her first war patrol, she sank the Japanese Aircraft Carrier Soryu which had been previously damaged by aerial attacks.
On 12 December 1951, the Navy Department announced that the world's first nuclear submarine, (SSN571), would carry the name NAUTILUS.
Construction of USS NAUTILUS (SSN571) was made possible by the successful development of a nuclear propulsion plant by a group of scientists and engineers at the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission, under the leadership of Captain Hyman G. Rickover, USN. Authorized by Congress in July 1951, her keel was laid on 14 June 1952 at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Connecticut., by President Harry S. Truman. A year and a half later, on 21 January 1954, Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across NAUTILUS' bow as she slid down the ways into the Thames River. Barely eight months later NAUTILUS became a commissioned ship in the United States Navy.
On the morning of 17 January 1955, at 1100 EST, NAUTILUS' Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, USN ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message "UNDERWAY ON NUCLEAR POWER." Over the next several years, NAUTILUS would shatter all submerged speed and distance records.
NAUTILUS departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 23 July 1958 under Top Secret orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine," the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship. At 1115 on 3 August 1958, Commander William R. Anderson, USN, Commanding Officer of NAUTILUS, announced to the crew "For the world, Our Country and the Navy - the North Pole" with 116 men aboard, NAUTILUS had accomplished the "impossible" - reaching the geographic North Pole, 90 degrees North.
In May 1959, NAUTILUS entered Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine for her first complete overhaul - the first of any nuclear powered ship - and the replacement of her second fuel core. Upon completion of her overhaul in August 1960, NAUTILUS departed for a period of refresher training, then deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to become the first nuclear submarine assigned to the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
Over the next six years, NAUTILUS participated in several fleet exercises while steaming over 200,000 miles. In the Spring of 1966, she again entered the record books when she logged her 300,000th mile underway. During the following twelve years, NAUTILUS was involved in a variety of developmental testing programs while continuing to serve alongside many of the more modern nuclear powered submarines she had preceeded.
In the Spring of 1979, NAUTILUS set out from Groton, Connecticut on her final voyage. She reached Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California on 26 May 1979, her last day underway. She was decommissioned on 30 March 1980 after a career spanning 25 years and almost half a million miles.
In recognition of her pioneering role in the practical use of
nuclear power, NAUTILUS was designated a National
Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior on
20 May 1982. Following an extensive historic ship conversion
at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, NAUTILUS was towed to
Groton, Connecticut arriving on 6 July 1985.
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