USS Nautilus is launched in 1954
Navy curiosa has always followed me from duty station to duty station. First, they were the duty stations of my late father. Later they were my own duty stations. Regardless, I always pick up various items of information along the way. Ultimately, I became quite knowledgable on ships and armaments back in the day.Now we have entire new classes of vessels and capabilities and my nephew whom I used chase around the house in diapers is now a chief petty officer of the line. Suffice it to say I am as much a relic as the AN/SPG 55-B radar I use to maintain and operate on the USS MacDonough back in the old days of my own enlistment.
 |
On this day in 1954 the United States launched our first operational nuclear-powered submarine. Named the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) it was launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mrs Mamie Eisenhower who was the First Lady of the United States at that time. It was built by General Dynamics as a Tang-class submarine for the US Navy in 1952 and was in commission from 1954 through 1980.
 |
She was first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on August 3rd 1958.
Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982.