Lieutenant Commander Derek Sutton is a native of Upstate New York. Officer-in-Charge, Historic Ship NAUTILUS (SSN 571) During the following 12 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 preceded. In the spring of 1966, she again entered the record books when she logged her 300,000th mile underway. Over the next six years, NAUTILUS participated in several fleet exercises while steaming over 200,000 miles. 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 powered submarine assigned to the U.S.

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. Anderson, announced to his 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. At 11:15 pm on August 3, 1958, NAUTILUS’ second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, “Underway On Nuclear Power.” Over the next several years, NAUTILUS shattered all submerged speed and distance records.ĬDR Anderson On July 23, 1958, NAUTILUS departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under top secret orders to conduct “Operation Sunshine”, the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship. On the morning of January 17, 1955, at 11 am EST, NAUTILUS’ first Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, NAUTILUS became the first commissioned nuclear powered ship in the United States Navy. Truman at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut on June 14, 1952.Īfter nearly 18 months of construction, NAUTILUS was launched on Januwith First Lady Mamie Eisenhower breaking the traditional bottle of champagne across NAUTILUS’ bow as she slid down the ways into the Thames River. On December 12th of that year, the Navy Department announced that she would be the sixth ship of the fleet to bear the name NAUTILUS. In July of 1951, Congress authorized construction of the world’s first nuclear powered submarine.

Construction of NAUTILUS 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.

Submarine museum