USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
|
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Launch | January 21, 1954 |
| Commissioning | September 30, 1954 |
| Decommissioning | 1979 |
| Whereabouts | Museum ship in Groton |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
Hours: 3,205 t |
| length |
97.5 m |
| width |
8.00 m |
| Draft |
7.9 m |
| crew |
105 men |
| drive |
Nuclear power drive , 10,000 kW |
| speed |
23 knots |
| Armament |
6 torpedo tubes |
The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) is an American submarine and was the world's first nuclear-powered submarine . It was the sixth ship in the United States Navy to bear that name . In ancient Greek means ναυτίλος Nautilos as a noun "Sailor", "Schiffer" or as adjective "belonging to the shipping industry".
history
construction
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US President Harry S. Truman attended the ceremony on the occasion of their keel was laid on 14 June 1952 the shipyard Electric Boat of General Dynamics in Groton , Connecticut , in part. The ship was christened on January 21, 1954 by Mamie Eisenhower , the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower . After commissioning on September 30, 1954, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson (1918-2013) became the first in command.
Before the Nautilus could set sail, however, she first had to remain in the dock for some time to complete final work and tests. It finally cast off on January 17, 1955 at 11 a.m. and set off on its own for the first time using an atomic drive. A test program was completed over the next few months before the Nautilus undertook its first real mission to the south on May 10th. She stayed submerged all the way to Puerto Rico , covering 1,381 miles in 90 hours, which was the longest submarine ride at the time and a record speed for submerged boats. Between 1955 and 1957, the tactical implications of the radically increased diving speed and duration were explored with the boat. Nuclear submarines turned traditional strategies for fighting submarine units on their heads. Aircraft and radar used to fight submarines in World War II proved ineffective against a boat that did not have to emerge, leave an area in record time, and flexibly change its depth in the process.
Rides
On February 4, 1957, the Nautilus dropped its 60,000. nautical mile back, which coincided with the travel time of the fictional Nautilus in Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . In May, she left her home port for the Pacific coast to take part in the fleet exercise Home Run , which was completed for the first time with a nuclear submarine.
Between July 21 and August 19, the Nautilus was anchored in New London , Connecticut, before setting out on her first voyage under polar pack ice 1,383 miles in length. She then took part in a NATO exercise in the East Atlantic and visited various French and British ports, where she was extensively visited by defense experts from these countries. She arrived back in New London on October 28th, received a brief wait, and then undertook operations off the coast until the next spring.
Passing under the North Pole
On April 25, 1958, she set out again for the west coast. After stops in San Diego , San Francisco and Seattle , the Nautilus began her historic polar voyage (Operation Sunshine ) when she left the port of Seattle on June 9th. On June 19, she reached the Chukchi Sea , but had to turn back because of too much drift ice . On June 28, she arrived in Pearl Harbor , where she was waiting for better conditions. On July 23, the Nautilus set course north again. On August 1, she went to a diving station near Point Barrow ( Alaska ), and on August 3, 1958 at 11:15 p.m. EDT , in Europe on August 4, 1958, she was the first ship to reach the geographic North Pole (Point Barrow - North Pole 2,072 km / 1,287.48 miles). After 96 hours and 1,830 miles under the ice, it reappeared northeast of Greenland , completing the first successful crossing under the northern polar ice . When the Nautilus arrived in Portland, England, the boat and its crew were awarded a medal by the American Ambassador JH Whitney. On October 29, she returned to her home port of New London. This trip had a major impact on the strategy of nuclear deterrence , because the US thus demonstrated the possibility of nuclear weapons - carrier systems to the front door of the Soviet Union to bring. The advance warning time before a nuclear attack was shortened considerably.
Further missions
After fleet exercises in the spring of 1959, the Nautilus called the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine , to receive its first complete overhaul (May 28 to August 15, 1960). Between October 24 and December 16, 1960, she was together with the 6th US fleet in the Mediterranean .
The Nautilus operated for a long time in the Atlantic to support field tests of improved combat techniques against submarines and to take part in NATO maneuvers. In the fall of 1962, she supported the sea blockade against Cuba . After the Cuba crisis ended , she undertook another two-month tour to the Mediterranean in August 1963 and then took part in fleet exercises before she was completely overhauled for the second time in Kittery in January 1964.
From May 2, 1966, the Nautilus was again available to the Atlantic fleet. Shortly thereafter, she put down her 300,000. Mile back at sea. Until August 1967 she carried out unspecified special operations.
In November 1966, American naval exercises took place in the North Atlantic. A torpedo school shooting was planned for November 10, in which the Nautilus and the aircraft carrier USS Essex took part. Several destroyers were involved in securing the aircraft carrier . When the Nautilus was approaching the mock attack, there was a collision between the submarine and the aircraft carrier . After the Nautilus had reduced its diving depth in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft carrier to just below the surface of the water, it came under the forecastle. As a result of the collision, the front paneling of the extendable equipment and systems located on the tower of the submarine was destroyed. The Essex leaked below the waterline. At that time, the ships were about 360 nautical miles off the coast of the US state of North Carolina . Immediately after the collision, the Nautilus appeared and ran to New London, accompanied by a destroyer, to repair the damage. The damage on the Nautilus was repaired within a very short time on special instructions. The aircraft carrier, on the other hand, was in the shipyard for a few months to repair its damage.
Decommissioning and further use
In spring 1979 the Nautilus left Groton on her last voyage. She reached the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo on May 26, 1979. There she was decommissioned, deleted from the ship register on March 3, 1980 and then restored.
On May 16, 1979, the Nautilus was entered as a construction on the National Register of Historic Places . The Nautilus was declared a National Historic Landmark on May 20, 1982 by the US Department of the Interior . After an extensive renovation, the Nautilus was towed back to Groton, where it arrived on July 6, 1985. The following year she was opened to the public as a museum ship.
Individual evidence
- ^ Nautilus IV (SSN-571) . In: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . Naval History & Heritage Command. 1970.
- ^ Norman Polmar, Kenneth J Moore: Cold War submarines: the design and construction of US and Soviet submarines . Brassey's,.
- ^ Wilhelm Gemoll : Greek-German school and hand dictionary. Munich / Vienna 1965.
- ↑ USS NAUTILUS (submarine) in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 1, 2017.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Connecticut. National Park Service , accessed July 20, 2019.
Web links
- US Navy Submarine Force Museum - USS Nautilus (SSN-571) (English)
- The secret mission of the Nautilus on "einestages.spiegel.de"
Coordinates: 41 ° 23 '13.6 " N , 72 ° 5' 17.8" W.