American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 11

The Ice Diaries
The Untold Story of the USS Nautilus and the Cold War’s Most Daring Mission

By Captain William R. Anderson
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched into space Sputnik
1, the first satellite to orbit Earth. Meanwhile, the United States’
space program was languishing behind, and it appeared to the
world that the Soviets were gaining a technological advantage
over the West. Around the world, free countries were beginning
to question the long-term value of being aligned with the U.S. in
what was becoming an increasingly heated Cold War.

hero in the United States. Just prior to his death in 2007, Captain
Anderson completed work on The Ice Diaries, which chronicles
the voyage of the Nautilus. In this issue, we are proud to share a
part of the epic story of Captain Anderson and the crew of the
Nautilus.
Friday, August 1, 1958

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was determined to demonstrate
to the world that the United States was just as capable of great
technological feats as the Soviets. In response to Sputnik, he ordered
a top-secret mission in which the USS Nautilus – the world’s first
nuclear-powered submarine – to travel underneath the Arctic ice
cap to go where no man had gone before: the North Pole.

We continued to feel our way back southeast toward Point Barrow,
the northernmost part of Alaska, still skirting the boundary of
the ice pack. Hopefully we would soon run across the deeper
water we sought that would allow us to speed northward once
again. The sea remained calm, but intermittent patches of dense
fog visited us, making visibility very poor. Sometimes we
maintained just enough speed to be able to steer the submarine
safely. When the fog allowed, we could easily see the pack
boundary to our left. Medium-sized blocks of ice were adrift
from the floes, and we had to avoid those at all costs. That
sometimes took us farther south than we really wanted to go.

Commanding that mission was William R. Anderson, the second
skipper of the Nautilus. Anderson graduated from the United
States Naval Academy in 1942, and was a decorated veteran of
World War II, earning the Bronze Star and participating in eleven
combat patrols. He was personally selected by Admiral Hyman
Rickover as commander of the Nautilus, a position he held from
1957-1959. Captain Anderson would go on to serve as a four- It was interesting to note that some of our systems had taken a
term congressman from Tennessee.
great leap forward in development – nuclear power, for example.
Other systems had lagged, and they would have to be further
Following their trek to the North Pole, the crew of the Nautilus developed before comfortable penetration of the ice pack in
gained international fame, and its commander was hailed as a shallow water would be feasible. I made notes and hoped that,
even if we failed, the things we learned in our attempt could be
applied to future missions to the Arctic.

Then just north of Point Franklin, Alaska, we found what we
had been looking for – deep water.
We first established our position by very short radar sweeps.
Then we headed northeastward. We had rounded the corner
of the pack and were now headed directly toward
the Barrow Sea Valley and what we hope
was the true deepwater gateway to
the western Arctic Basin.
The USS Nautilus in New York Harbor,
August 25, 1958.

U.S. Navy Photo

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTERLY - Autumn 2008 - 11