Nautilus on the Delaware River

Sir Hubert Wilkins first got the idea of a submarine expedition to the North Pole during his first polar expedition in 1913. The actual plan of the expedition, suggested by that expedition's commander Vilhjalmur Stefansson, came to fruition during Wilkins's honeymoon in 1930, while staying with Lincoln Ellsworth at his Swiss Castle in Schloss Lenzburg. Both men had crossed the North Pole before (Wilkins by airplane and Ellsworth by airship), and both saw that the submarine as a means of safely reaching the Arctic to conduct scientific experiments. Wilkins also envisioned the use of submarines to establish weather stations in the polar regions, and as a means of transporting cargo between Europe and the United States over shorter distances by sailing over the roof of the world.

In 1931, Sir Hubert began to assemble his scientific research mission to the North Pole. Using a modified O-class submarine leased from the United States Navy, the goals of this expedition were two-fold: to conduct scientific experiments and observations while moored to ice floes and while under weigh; and to successfully navigate to the North Pole while submerged beneath the ice floes. The experiments ranged from meteorological observations to temperature and water samples taken from the surface and the sea floor.

The submarine that Wilkins leased was the O-12 (SS 73), built in 1916 by the Lake Torpedo Boat Co. of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was brought to the Mathis Shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, for additional modifications. There, the boat was stripped of her military armament and fitted out with the latest scientific equipment, and changes were made to the superstructure to allow her to operate beneath the ice floes. With the modifications complete, the submarine cast off from Mathis Shipyard on March 16 for the first leg of her journey which would take her to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Even before leaving the Delaware River, however, the sub was delayed. A snow storm forced the O-12 to stop at the Philadelphia Navy Yard (not an auspicious start for a ship headed to the Arctic), and she had to stop again at the Texas Oil Company wharf at Marcus Hook to take on fuel.

Christening the Nautilus at Brooklyn Navy Yard

On March 23 the O-12 arrived at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. While entering New York Harbor, the crew suffered the first in a series of accidents and mechanical problems that would plague them on the expedition when Willard I. Grimmer, age 27, fell overboard and drowned. The next day, Lady Suzanne Bennett Wilkins (Sir Hubert's wife) christened the submarine Nautilus, using a bottle of ice water, since prohibition made champagne unavailable. Among the many spectators to witness the event was Jean Jules Verne, grandson to the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was the source of the O-12's new name.

Before setting out on the expedition, the crew put the Nautilus through test runs in various locations off the New England coast, including a 90-foot dive off Block Island. Facing mounting criticism and the fact the expedition was already two months behind schedule, it was decided that the Nautilus would head out immediately to its next port of call in England. This leg of the voyage, too, would be ill fated. While crossing the Atlantic, the Nautilus ran into severe storms that resulted in mechanical failure on June 13, when the starboard engine cracked a cylinder. This mishap was followed by the failure of the port engine, probably form overuse as the sole source of propulsion.

During the crossing, Wilkins had continually radioed the submarine's position back to the United States, and after both engines had failed, they began to broadcast a SOS. The Nautilus was eventually rescued on June 15 by the U.S.S. Wyoming (BB-32), which was crossing the Atlantic on a training cruise with midshipmen from the Naval Academy. The Wyoming took the foundering submarine in tow to Queenstown, Ireland, from which she was later towed to Davenport, England, for repairs. Delay was added to delay, when essential spare parts had to be shipped specially from the United States. Finally, the Nautilus was able to get under weigh for Bergen, Norway, where they rendezvoused with the sub's science officers and took on additional equipment. Among the most valuable pieces added in Bergen was a diving chamber, which was located at the forward end of the boat in the former torpedo room. Cabin pressure in this chamber could be regulated to match the external water pressure, allowing scientific equipment to be lowered directly into the water through a hatch.

Crew of the Nautilus on an ice floe

On August 5, the Nautilus finally left Bergen and headed north in search of the ice floes. Following course, the voyage was repeatedly delayed due to mechanical problems and storms, one of which caused the submarine to list at angles of up to 57 degrees. The crew did not encounter their first ice floe until August 19, a moment celebrated when Ike Schlossback took the first to step onto ice at 18:00 hours. For the next few days the submarine followed the edge of the ice pack in search of a location to make their first dive attempt. On August 22 the decision was made to dive under the ice floe, but while preparing to submerge, Captain Sloan Danenhower noticed that the Nautilus's diving rudders appeared to be missing. Diver Frank Crilley was put overboard to assess the damage, and he confirmed Danenhower's observation that the rudders were lacking, noting that there was evidence that they had been intentionally broken off. Loss of the rudders made standard dives impossible, and for Wilkins, confirmed the suspicion that one or more members of the crew had sabotaged the boat. Further evidence for this suspicion came from the fact that the vertical rudder was not damaged -- as the diving and vertical rudders are part of the same structure, an ice impact would have carried both rudders away. The sabotage, if sabotage it was, may have been linked to some of the crew's lack of confidence in Wilkins, and the feeling that the expedition was a suicide mission.

Crew of the Nautilus conducting experiments on ice

Despite this setback, Wilkins was determined to accomplish some of the scientific experiments he had originally planned, particularly those that did not require being submerged. In the course of carrying out the experiments, the opportunity of forcing the Nautilus under an ice pack presented itself on August 31, and by filing all four ballast tanks and setting the trim at 2.5 degrees, the Nautilus was able to dive beneath a floe three feet thick. Using this same technique, the crew were able to make additional dives below the ice floes before the voyage ended.

After a few days of further research, Wilkins was persuaded that it was no longer safe to remain at sea. The Nautilus arrived at Longyeartbyen in Svalbard on September 8, after suffering through the worst storm she had yet encountered on the voyage. It was planned to proceed to a port in England, but when the boat encountered another storm, resulting in massive hull damage and engine failure, the Nautilus was forced to dock in Bergen one final time. After receiving permission from the United States Shipping Board, the Nautilus was towed out of Bergen and sunk in a Norwegian fjord on November 20, 1931.