USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

Rare card · No. 48850

USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world's first nuclear-powered boat, nuclear-powered submarine, and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958. Her initial commanding officer was Eugene "Dennis" Wilkinson, a widely respected naval officer who set the stage for many of the protocols of today's Nuclear Navy in the US and who had a storied career during military service and afterwards. Nautilus shares the name of the fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic 1870 science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and the USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II. The Nautilus was authorized in 1951. Construction began in 1952, and it was launched in January 1954, sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was commissioned the following September into the United States Navy and was delivered to the Navy in 1955. Her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than...

Read on Wikipedia · Image USN official photo # 199068, Public domain