“Stand by.  10… 8… 6… 4… 3… 2… 1… MARK! August 3, 1958. Time 2315. For the United States and the United States Navy, the North Pole.” I could hear the cheers in the Crew’s mess.
I stood for a moment in silence, awe-struck at what Nautilus had achieved. She had blazed a new submerged  North-West Passage, vastly decreased the sea-travel time for nuclear submarines from the Pacific to the Atlantic, one that could be used if the Panama Canal were closed. When and if nuclear-powered cargo submarines are built, the new route would cut 4,900 miles and thirteen days off the route from Japan to Europe. Nautilus had opened a new era, completely conquered the vast, inhospitable Arctic. Our instruments were, for the first time, compiling an accurate and broad picture of the Arctic Basin and its approaches. Nautilus’ achievement was dramatic proof of United States leadership in at least one important branch of science; and soon it would rank alongside or above the Russian sputnik in the minds of millions…
    What a dangerous business trying to predict the future is. But really, it does give a sense of how intimidated the Americans were by Sputnik. The inflated claim was made by Commander Anderson in his Nautilus 90 North, and the event did indeed fill me with awe at the time it occurred, the journey of a nuclear submarine under the Arctic Ice Cap and under the north pole. Jules Verne had predicted it a century earlier, but apparently it was only a co-incidence that Verne’s imaginary submarine and the real one had the same name.