U.S.S Nautilus

Catalogue Number H-308

Finished model depicted in the 1958-59 Revell US catalogue with caption. here

Comments

Short History of the Real Life Nautilus

The Nautilus was according to [3]

• Laid down, 14 June 1952, at Electric Boat Co., Division of General Dynamics Corp., Groton, CT.;

• Launched, 21 January 1954;

• Commissioned, as USS Nautilus (SSN-571), 30 September 1954
  and became the first commissioned nuclear powered ship in the United States Navy.
  

• Decommissioned, and struck from the Naval Register, 3 March 1980;

• Finally dedicated as a museum ship. Nautilus is located at the Historic Ship Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum, NAVSUBASE, New London, Groton, CT.

On July 23, 1958, NAUTILUS departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under top secret orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine," the first crossing of the north pole by a ship. At 11:15 pm on August 3, 1958, NAUTILUS' second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, USN, announced to his crew "For the world, Our Country, and the Navy - the North Pole." With 116 men aboard, NAUTILUS had accomplished the "impossible," reaching the geographic North Pole--90 degrees north. [1]

Was the real Nautilus equipped with Guided Missiles ?

I do not (yet) own that model, and cannot look up what REVELL says in the building instrucions but there is some doubt if the real Nautilus SSN-571 was equipped with guided missiles . As I have no printed references on ships, I did some research in the web. I did not find any trace of guided missile employed , tested or projected for the Nautilus (see the most important of sources below) . But who knows . Everything was possible in the 50´s and possibly there was something planned like that .

At least, according to Rockets and Space Travel a 1956 publication [4], dealing with the Chance Vought SSM-N-8 Regulus misile which could be seen as a successor of the Loon
" One [ Regulus misile] has been launched from the U.S. Submarine "Tunnny", and Regulus is to be carried by the atomic submarine "Nautilus"( p 19).

Does anyone else know more about that theme ?

But by no means could Nautilus have been equipped with the Loon (a development of the German V1 cruise misile) as depicted in this model.

And that generates the special spell for me about this model , the 50´s and REVELL in those days.

Obviously REVELL wanted to model the Nautilus:

I have no other sources but one can recognize clear enough the designation SSN-571 of the real ship on the conning tower of the box art image seen in a leaflet from REVELL Germany dated 1963/64.

The real Nautilus was commissoned on 30 September 1954, but - according to [4] - the last lauch of a Loon missile took place on 11 September 1953. The test submarines Cusk and Carbonero where converted to Regulus guidance submarines.

In the German 1960 Catalogue from importer BEHRENDS the caption of the catalog entry says "...the model has an atomic canon..." ( here )

This could be identified on the box cover in the linked image here

Researching the Web I did not find any trace of an atomic canon on the Nautilus.

Does anyone know more about that, too ?

        Websites

[1]  Historic Ship NAUTILUS and Submarine Force Library and Museum here

[2]  Personal website from Bill Mc Nally, author of the book: Nautilus SSN 571 : My Life on Submarines.Fom Diesel to
      Atomic.  History of USS NAUTILUS (SSN-571) here

[3] NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive, Nautilus (SSN-571) Photos and short history here  

    Books

[4] Allward, Maurice F. and John W.R. Taylor.Rockets and Space Travel. Ian Allen abc.London Ian Allen,1956