USS Nautilus
The USS Nautilus was the first nuclear-powered submarine, and the first submarine to cross under the Arctic ice cap. It was named for the submarine in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (see The Nautilus).The hull number was SSN571. Construction began with the laying down of the keel on June 14, 1952, and she was launched on January 21, 1954 from Groton, Connecticut and commissioned on September 30, 1954 as the first nuclear-powered vessel in the US Navy. The vessel made history in a cruise beneath the Arctic ice cap, when it crossed the North pole on August 3, 1958 and on May 10, 1960 when it completed the first under water circumnavigation of Earth.
The USS Nautilus , decomissioned on March 3, 1980, has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark and is open for tours to the public, free of charge, at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut. (See link below.)
