USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

The retired USS Nautilus heads home on 8 May 2002, after preservation by the Electric Boat Division
Class overview
Builders	General Dynamics
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	Tang class
Succeeded by	USS Seawolf
Built	1952
In commission	1954–1980
History
United States
Name	Nautilus
Namesake	Jules Verne's "Nautilus" submarine[1]
Awarded	2 August 1951
Builder	General Dynamics
Laid down	14 June 1952
Launched	21 January 1954
Sponsored by	Mamie Eisenhower (First Lady of the United States)
Completed	22 April 1955
Commissioned	30 September 1954
Decommissioned	3 March 1980
Stricken	3 March 1980
Status	Museum ship
General characteristics
Type	Nuclear submarine
Displacement	3,533 long tons (3,590 t) (surface) 4,092 long tons (4,158 t) (submerged)[2]
Length	320 ft (97.5 m)
Beam	28 ft (8.5 m)
Draft	26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power	13,400 hp (10,000 kW)[4]
Propulsion	STR nuclear reactor (later redesignated S2W), geared steam turbines, two shafts
Speed	23 kn (43 km/h; 26 mph)[3]
Complement	13 officers, 92 enlisted
Armament	6 torpedo tubes
U.S.S. Nautilus (Nuclear Submarine)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
USS Nautilus docked at the Submarine Force Library and Museum
Location	Groton, Connecticut
Built	1952-1955, (commissioned 1954)
Architect	General Dynamics Corporation
NRHP reference No.	79002653
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	16 May 1979[5]
Designated NHL	20 May 1982[6]

USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world's first operational 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 of the US, and who had a storied career during military service and afterwards.^[7]

Sharing a name with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic 1870 science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea^[8] and the USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II,^[9] the new nuclear-powered Nautilus was authorized in 1951. Construction began in 1952, and the boat was launched in January 1954, sponsored by Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States, wife of 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower; it was commissioned the following September into the United States Navy. Nautilus was delivered to the Navy in 1955.

Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines.

Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives around 250,000 visitors per year.