This al fresco arrangement will be retracted before the submersible slips below sea level. When functioning as a yacht, the Nautilus will offer a massive sundeck equipped with a freshwater pool, a bar, and a luxurious dining table. The diesel-electric yacht submarine Nautilus has a depth rating of 200 meters, with a surface cruise speed of 9 knots and an underwater speed of 4 knots. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called 'The Essential List' – a handpicked selection of stories fromīBC Future, Culture, Worklife, Travel and Reel delivered to your inbox every Friday.Nautilus: The submersible superyacht by U-Boat Worx, interior design and visusalisation by Officina Armare. Join one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter or Instagram. Any further role in conveying Santa remains top secret.ĭuring his research, Morison has now visited the North Pole some 15 times – although all have been by air apart from that one, thrilling expedition beneath the ice. 'Then the crew get 'ice liberty' and can get out onto the ice.'Īfter breaking every submarine speed and endurance record, USS Nautilus made its final voyage in 1979 and is now open in Connecticut as part of a maritime museum. 'The class of submarine was fitted with fins on the conning tower that could flip 90 degrees to pierce the ice like a knife when it surfaced between ice floes,' Morison explains. Morison considers himself lucky particularly because – just like Santa on the USS Nautilus, apparently – he also got to get out at the North Pole. Since 1969, for instance, the UK has always had at least one submarine carrying nuclear weapons at sea – a role currently performed by its Vanguard-class boats.Īnd while the mission was a proving ground for the military potential of nuclear submarines, it was also a scientific milestone, helping to set the stage for a new era of exploration and discovery about the strange world beneath the Arctic ice.īut, even now, operating in the ocean beneath the Arctic ice is never routine.Īlthough the US Scicex programme is still operating, and scientific data still being gathered and shared, scientists no longer get to join submarine crews.

Today, nuclear-powered submarines can remain deep beneath the waves for months at a time, stealthy weapons of destruction and deterrence, carrying torpedoes and nuclear missiles. 'It provided proof that a nuclear-powered submarine could operate submerged, and therefore entirely stealthily, for sustained deployments.' 'It was an eloquent demonstration of a revolution in maritime warfare,' says Captain Justin Hughes, a retired nuclear submarine commander for the British Royal Navy and now honorary secretary of the Friends of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum. US President Dwight D Eisenhower sent his congratulations on 'a magnificent achievement', certain in the knowledge that the voyage would revolutionise submarine operations and any future warfare. In fact, Nautilus had already been deep underwater for three days before it reached the Pole and did not come back to the surface, near the coast of Greenland, until 7 August 1958 – spending a week beneath the waves and ice. But running off a nuclear reactor meant that Nautilus needed to do none of these things.

The epic voyage that peered into the voidīefore Nautilus, submarines had to surface, or at least extend a snorkel above the waves, to take in air needed to run their diesel engines and charge their batteries for electric propulsion.

The dive to find the world's deepest shipwreck.The shipwrecks rewriting ancient history.The transit took place with the 97-metre-long (319ft) submarine and its 116 crew (it's not clear in the logbook if that includes Santa) entirely submerged under the ice, a feat impossible before the invention of compact nuclear-powered propulsion.Īs Anderson announced to his crew: 'For the world, our country, and the navy – the North Pole.' It was the final sentence of a celebratory record of the first crossing of the North Pole by any ship under its own power, a top-secret mission codenamed 'Operation Sunshine'. On 3 August 1958, the commander of the world's first nuclear submarine made an extraordinary, if somewhat tongue in cheek, entry in his logbook: 'Embarked following personage at North Pole…' wrote USS Nautilus commander William Anderson, '…Santa Claus, affiliation: Christmas.'

Nautilus submarine crew