Nautilus Sails Under the Pole and 1,830 Miles of Arctic Icecap in Pacific-to-Atlantic
New Route to Europe Pioneered--Skipper and Crew Cited
By FELIX BELAIR, JR.
Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES
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Washington, Aug. 8 -- History's first undersea voyage across the top of the world, a
distance of 1,830 miles under the polar icecap, was disclosed at the White House today.
The trip was made in four days by the Nautilus, the world's first atomic submarine. The
voyage pioneered a new and shorter route from Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe -- a
route that might be used by cargo submarines. It also added to man's knowledge of the
subsurface of the Arctic basin.
The voyage took the Nautilus under the North Pole. The overall trip began at Pearl
Harbor July 23 and ended at Iceland Aug. 7.
Dives at Point Barrow
The Nautilus went under the icecap at Point Barrow, Alaska, and surfaced four days later
at a point in the Atlantic between Spitzbergen and Greenland. She is now on her way to
The feat of the Nautilus, with 116 crewmen and scientific observers aboard, was revealed
as President Eisenhower decorated the submarine's skipper, Comdr. W. R. Anderson,
with the Legion of Merit. A Presidential Unit Citation- the first ever conferred in
peacetime- went to the submarine, with a ribbon and special clasp in the form of a golden
"N" to all who participated in the cruise.
The Presidential citation to Commander Anderson said that the Nautilus under his
leadership had pioneered a submerged sea lane between the Eastern and Western
Hemispheres. It added:
"This points the way for further exploration and possible use of this route by nuclear
powered cargo submarines as a new commercial seaway between the major oceans of the
Skipper Tells Story
A few minutes after the award, Commander Anderson, admittedly "a little dazed" by the
speed of events that brought him here overnight by helicopter and jet plane from Arctic
waters, was telling his story of "Operation Northwest Passage."
News of the voyage reached the Capitol with electrifying effect. William F. Knowland of
California, the Senate Republican leader, read a brief dispatch to the Senate and
"This should give us courage and remind us to have faith. It shows that this is no
time to sell America short."
Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, the Democratic acting leader, congratulated
Commander Anderson and his crew.
President Eisenhower had already extended the Nautilus skipper his own "very, very best
congratulations" after pinning the decoration on the commander's tunic. He also asked
for him in conveying his personal "well done" to the submarine's officers and crew.
With an occasional glance at his wife who was flown here by Navy plane earlier today
from New London, Conn., without being told why, the 37-year-old Navy Officer sat for
about half an hour under floodlights telling reporters of the voyage. Newsreel and
television cameras recorded the ceremony as did tape recorders for radio broadcasting.
A circular flat map- based on a polar stereographic projection- of the Pacific and Arctic
areas from Pearl Harbor to Greenland was in place in a conference room near the
President's office when James C. Hagerty, White House press secretary, broke the secrecy
surrounding the "very good story" he told reporters would be coming at 1:30 P. M.
The press secretary pointed out that the distance from London to Tokyo at the present
time was about 11,200 nautical miles- by the Panama Canal. By traversing the Arctic
under the icecap the distance was only 6,300 miles- a saving of 4,900 miles, he said.
Mr. Hagerty told how the nautical mileage from Honolulu to London would be cut from
the conventional surface route of 9,500 miles to 6,700 miles by the polar route.
After the citations had been read by the President's naval aide, Capt. E. P. Aurand, and
the President had talked, Thomas S. Gates Jr., Secretary of the Navy, remarked in an
aside to Commander Anderson that "this is the first time a Presidential Citation has been
given in peacetime."
On hearing the observation, the President remarked: "I couldn't think of a better time to
Beaming in the background as the President presented the decoration were Vice Admiral
James A. Russell, acting Chief of Naval Operations; Admiral Frederick B. Warder,
Commander of the Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force; Admiral Jerauld Wright, Supreme
Commander Atlantic Forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; John A. McCone,
chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and Lewis Strauss, Administrative
Assistant to the President on Peaceful Purposes of Atomic Energy.
Anderson Tells Story
The group having withdrawn, Commander Anderson began the story of Operation
Northwest Passage as it got under way from Pearl Harbor in the predawn hours of July 23
under highest secrecy. He recounted briefly how the Nautilus had cruised submerged on
a northerly course past the Aleutian Islands and through the Bering Strait between Alaska
and Siberia toward the brittle fringe of the ice pack and then beneath it.
From Pearl Harbor to the Bering Strait, some 2,900 miles, the Nautilus maintained an
average speed of "almost 20 knots." Commander Anderson said it was his original plan
to make "a straight shot" for the polar crossing from the Bering Sea. However,
observations showed a stiff northerly wind had pushed the ice pack farther south than
Looking back, Commander Anderson said that the Nautilus probably could have gotten
through on that route, but that he wanted to find the best possible "highway" and the
search for it took him from the vicinity north of the Bering Strait over to the coast of
Northern Alaska and Point Barrow.
At this point Commander Anderson said that he had discovered the "lead" that normally
opens into deep water at this time of year was easily accessible. The Barrow Sea Valley,
a deep canyon in the ocean floor, was located and followed from a point just north of
Point Barrow to its entry into the true Arctic Basin.
Once in the Barrow Sea Valley, the skipper explained, "we were in our true element and
able to cruise fast and deep-- we were on our way."
The Nautilus surfaced only in the Point Barrow area to photograph the area and to track
the ocean floor for the sea valley. It periscoped off the Diomedes Islands between Alaska
and Siberia and for about thirty seconds sent up its radar for checking bearings.
"If the Russians detected us they are awfully good," Commander Anderson said in
answering a question. He explained that the submarine had been in international waters
throughout the trip and well on the American side of Bering Strait while traversing that
Above the Nautilus the covering icecap was plainly visible over the vessel's closed-circuit
television, the sixth months period of Arctic daylight making visibility no problem. Now
and then great holes appeared in the icecap but the Nautilus sped on.
"We were in a hurry," Commander Anderson explained.
"Why were you in a hurry?" he was asked.
"Navigating under these conditions up close to the pole, making the voyage with the
minimum number of turns, speed changes, depth changes, angle changes, facilitates the
accuracy of navigation by a very marked degree," Commander Anderson went on.
"It is possible to get yourself considerably confused by subjecting the ship to a number of
turns, and so on, knowing what we know now, we would make the crossing in a much
more relaxed fashion. We wouldn't hesitate to change course, or probe openings.
However, we were anxious on this trip to show the possibility of utilizing this route some
day as a fast commercial route."
Commander Anderson was casual but careful in describing the performance
characteristics of his submarine. Its cruising depth and average speed were only
generally described because of security reasons.
"I am able to tell you," the skipper said at one point, "that the Nautilus cruises at lower
than 400 feet. I am able to tell you that we made better than 20 knots. The speed is
somewhat faster in cold water."
The Nautilus skipper was interrupted repeatedly with questions. His answers disclosed
among other things that the Arctic Sea at the North Pole was considerably deeper than
had been supposed. Precision measurements placed the true depth at 13,410 or 1,927 feet
greater than earlier estimates.
Commander Anderson indicated a distinct lack of curiosity about the precise make up an
penetration of the icecap below the surface of the sea. It ranged in thickness from ten to
fifteen feet and loses about three feet of its winter depth in summer. But pressures caused
by wind and tide, sent it to a depth of fifty feet in unchartered places and these were well
above the submarine, he explained.
Hitherto unknown underwater mountain ranges were found to crisscross the Barrow Sea
Valley from its beginning near Point Barrow to a point where it enters the Arctic Basin.
These ranges were apart from the previously known Lomonosov Ridge extending from
Canada almost directly across the Pole into the Soviet Union.
It was exactly at 11:!5 P.M. Eastern standard time last Sunday that the atomic-driven
submarine passed directly beneath the North Pole with a larger company than ever had
been on the spot before. It neither paused nor notified Washington until the Nautilus
surfaced some thirty-six hours later in the Greenland Sea.
The entire voyage under the icecap- a distance equivalent to that from Chicago to San
Francisco- was without a close call or mishap of any kind and without casualty or illness.
As he told his story Commander Anderson said that he wanted to "brag a little about our
"I really think that this is the most remarkable job in ship navigation that has ever been
done," he added.
A humorous note crept into the recitation as Commander Anderson gave the first public
definition of what he called "longitudinal roulette," a passtime not to be indulged in while
traversing the arctic sea for the first time in a submarine.
"A trip across the North Pole, where there is no opportunity to observe anything outside
of the ship, no opportunity to observe stars or do any type of electronic navigation,
presents a very formidable problem- or what has been up to now a very formidable
problem," the skipper explained.
"For example, it would be possible for a ship equipped with conventional navigation
equipment to become so confused at the North Pole that they might actually work
themselves around in a slow circle, thinking that they were going in a straight line, and
end up coming into perhaps the ice-locked coast off Greenland, or even more
disappointing, back where they came from."
How did he manage to avoid this confusion?
"By having superb navigation equipment- superb compasses- by having this advanced
inertial type navigation system, and by having such a complex of navigation equipment to
check one thing against the other, and the other thing against something else- repeated
over and over again, that we knew we were in business," Commander Anderson replied.
An inertial guidance system is made up of gyroscopes and other devices that
automatically determine a submarine's position even on along submerged cruises.
The Nautilus skipper said that no contacts of a hostile nature had been made throughout
the nineteen days and 8,146 miles covered from Pearl Harbor. Contacts not of a hostile
nature were made, but Commander Anderson did not explain what these might have
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