Herculean Effort Got Nautilus Underway on Nuclear Power

By DAVID F. WINKLER

On a foggy morning, Jan. 21, 1954, at the Electric Boat (EB) Co. shipyard at Groton, Conn., photographer Gary Steinhaus set up his camera on a tripod to photograph the launching of Nautilus. Adjusting his lenses, Steinhaus sought to capture the culmination of a vision that began in 1939 with Dr. Ross Gunn at the Naval Research Laboratory, who suggested that nuclear power “would enormously increase the range and military effectiveness of a submarine.”

After 10 years of research into reactor development, a Submarine Officers Conference held in March 1949 endorsed the concept of building a nuclear propulsion system for installation in a submarine in January 1955. Capt. Hyman J. Rickover would oversee the effort.

Recognizing the historic technological advances embodied in a nuclear-powered submarine, President Harry S. Truman officiated at the keel-laying ceremony held June 14, 1952. Eighteen months later, a submarine that had a German World War II Type XXVI hull form, stood on the building ways amid hundreds of onlookers. The Navy invited First Lady Mamie Eisenhower to christen its newest warship.

Steinhaus observed the arrival of the official party, with Cmdr. Edward L. Beach Jr. escorting Mrs. Eisenhower. As the speakers read their prepared remarks, the fog slowly began to dissipate and the sun began to stream down. “I thought of how fitting this change in the weather was, and an admiral speaking at the podium also thought enough of the symbolism to include it in his speech,” Steinhaus said.

The young photographer then prepared to capture the christening on film. He later described the event: “At the specified moment, shipyard whistles sounded, and Mrs. Eisenhower smashed the champagne bottle onto the bow of Nautilus just as it began to slide down and into the river.”

Ironically, the festive launching ceremony nearly proved fatal to the submarine’s future. Piping used to provide steam heat to the VIP grandstand was dismantled and placed in the company storehouse, next to seamless stainless steel piping that had been ordered for use in Nautilus.

Berthed in the waters of the Thames, Nautilus still needed much work before its commissioning and eventual deployment. During this fitting-out period, workers inadvertently withdrew the inferior pipes from the storehouse for installation on the submarine.

The negligence was discovered when a pipe burst during a reactor cooling system test on Sept. 16, 1954, a mere two weeks before the submarine’s commissioning ceremony. The commissioning went ahead as planned, but Nautilus was far from being ready for sea. Unable to test the quality of installed piping, the shipyard had no choice but to replace all tubes that were suspected as being inferior.

Shifts worked seven days a week to perform the replacement work at great expense to EB. The Herculean effort enabled Cmdr. Eugene P. Wilkinson on Jan. 17, 1955, to transmit the message, “Underway on nuclear power.”

Nuclear propulsion introduced a new era for the U.S. Navy. Nuclear- powered submarines would play a key role in containing the Soviet Union, contributing to America’s ultimate triumph in the Cold War. In addition, lessons learned from the Nautilus construction forced the Navy and private industry to review and revise quality assurance processes. For EB, all future pipe orders would be for the costly seamless variety, no matter what the intended use, leading one EB marine engineer to remark, “We ended up with the most expensive parking lot railings in the world.”

Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation.

Source: Gary E. Weir, Forged in War: The Naval-Industrial Complex and American Submarine Construction, 1940-1961 (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1993). Weir and Gary Steinhaus assisted with this article.