(WHTM) — It’s called Operation Sunshine.

On July 23, 1958, the world’s first nuclear submarine, the U.S.S Nautilus, departs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and sails north. Onboard are Commander William R. Anderson, 111 officers and crew, and four civilian scientists. Its top-secret mission travel to the North Pole and beyond.

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Because of its nuclear power plant, Nautilus does not have to surface to recharge batteries, like the diesel-electric submarines of World War Two and earlier. They will be able to make the entire journey under the arctic ice cap submerged.

First, though, they have to get under the ice. This is actually the Nautilus crew’s second try. An earlier attempt in June has to be scrubbed when they discovered the ice pack near the Bering Sea is much thicker than they expected. After a harrowing incident where they have to squeeze under an enormous iceberg with just five feet to spare, they head south to Hawaii and wait for the ice to recede.

  • The atomic-powered submarine USS Nautilus hits the water in the Thames river at Groton, Conn., Jan. 21, 1954, at the official launching. Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower christened the craft moments earlier. (AP Photo/stf)
  • Cdr. William Anderson of the atomic submarine, USS Nautilus in his suite at Hotel Chatham in New York City on August 26, 1958. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
  • In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the USS Nautilus plows its way through the toward the Arctic via the shallow Chukchi Sea as the officer of the deck inspects, Aug. 1958. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
  • In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Cdr. William R. Anderson of the USS Nautilus, above right, on the bridge duirng a period of low visibility, searches for a spot deep enough to submerge safely under the ice to pass under the North Pole, Aug. 1958. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
  • In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Lieutenant Commander F.M. Adams, U.S. Navy executive officer of the Nautilus, Commander W.R. Anderson, commanding officer, and Dr. Waldo K. Lyon, senior scientist aboard, watch from the foot of the grand staircase in the control room as the USS Nautilus submerges off Point Barrow, Alaska, to begin its under-ice transpolar voyage, Aug. 8, 1958. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
  • In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the watch crew aboard the USS Nautilus keeps close watch on the controls aboard the USS Nautilus in the control room while the ship passes under the polar ice cap, Aug. 3, 1958. Exact course and depth are checked very accurately. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)
  • Dock workers at Portland, England, wave their hands to greet the USS Nautilus as the atomic powered submarine ended its epic voyage under North Pole ice cap, Aug. 12, 1958. The Nautilus left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on July 23, submerging to cruise under the Arctic. Some of the crew of the submarine is on deck as the sub inches into its berth. (AP Photo)
  • The U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus leaves for home at Portland, Dorset on Aug. 18, 1958. (AP Photo)
  • The USS Nautilus is pictured after passing under the Manhattan Bridge in New York City, on its way to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Aug. 25, 1958. (AP Photo/Leslie Priest)
  • U.S. Navy’s atomic submarine Nautilus approaches the battery at the lower tip of Manhattan Island on Aug. 25, 1958 as she starts her marine march up the Hudson River, at left, during her New York welcome. At right is the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River. (AP Photo/stf
  • Fireboats spray water as a welcome to the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine USS Nautilus while she moves past the New York skyline on Aug. 25, 1958. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
  • Rear Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, a pioneer in the development of atomic submarines, boards Navy’s nuclear-powered sub Nautilus from a tugboat in New York Harbor, Aug. 25, 1958. Rickover was President Eisenhower’s personal representative for ceremonies welcoming the history-making underwater craft. (AP Photo)
  • Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, father of nuclear powered submarines, boards the USS Nautilus from the Navy Tug 534 in the Narrows below Brooklyn, New York on August 25, 1958. Cdr. William Anderson, head showing at left, awaits to greet the admiral aboard the U.S. Navy’s first nuclear sub. Anderson is skipper of the Nautilus. Saluting at left center is Lt. Donald P. Hall, gunnery officer of the Nautilus. The craft returned earlier from four-month voyage. (AP Photo/Pool)
  • The crew of the nuclear-powered USS Nautilus rides up Lower Broadway in Manhattan, Aug. 27, 1958, as an estimated large crowd watched the cavalcade proceed to an official welcome at City Hall by Mayor Robert Wagner. (AP Photo)
  • Actress-singer Lena Horne tries on a white hat belonging to a crewmember of the USS Nautilus at the stage entrance of the Imperial Theatre where Horne is appearing in the musical “Jamaica” in New York City, Aug. 25, 1958. Standing third from left is her co-star Ricardo Montalban. The Nautilus crew, who arrived in New York aboard their nuclear powered submarine, are, from left, Norman A. Vitale, holding fan, Engineman First Class of Wellesley, Ma.; Terrence R. Provost, Radioman Second Class of Chicopee, Ma.; Boyd W. Cohenour, Engineman Second Class of Burlington, Iowa; Thomas J. Deane, Commissaryman Second Class of Quincy, Ma.; and Raymond G. Kazebee, Electrician First Class of Harmonsburg, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo)
  • The Submarine Force Library and Museum, where the Nautilus is on display. The two metal rings compare the size of the navy’s first submarine, the U.S.S. Holland, with the U.S.S. Ohio. Picture taken 2004 by the author.
  • The U.S.S. Nautilus at dock. Picture taken 2004 by the author.
  • U.S.S. Nautilus. Picture taken 2004 by the author.
  • The torpedo room. Much of the exhibit areas are glassed in. The staircase was added so visitors could more easily enter the sub. Photo taken 2004 by the author.
  • The Mess Hall. Picture taken 2004 by the author.
  • For the voyage under the ice cap, the Nautilus was fitted with breathing masks, in case of a fire or smoke incident. This later became standard equipment on all subs. Photo taken 2004 by the author.
  • Visitors are given wands to listen to explanations of the various parts of the sub. Photo taken 2004 by the author.
  • That other Nautilus was on display as well. We never did find out how or why it ended up there. Photo taken 2004 by the author.

When they return to the area at the end of July, the ice pack has retreated northward. On August 1st they dive near Point Barrow, Alaska, and steer for the pole.

Navigating a ship in the Arctic presents unique problems. The needles on magnetic compasses start swinging erratically as they near the North Magnetic Pole, and gyrocompasses, which find true north using the Earth’s rotation, can lose their lock and “tumble” because the rate of the Earth’s spin changes nearer the poles.

But the Nautilus has a new device, an inertial navigation system. Based on steering instruments developed for rockets, it combines a number of inputs on ship speed, course changes and outside conditions to plot a ship’s position. It’s the old concept of “dead reckoning” taken to a new level.

At 2315 Eastern Daylight Savings Time (11:35 p.m.) on August 3, 1958, Commander Anderson announces to his crew: “For the United States and United States Navy—the North Pole.” The Nautilus has become the first ship to reach the Pole, either on the surface or underwater.

On August 5th the submarine surfaces in the Greenland Sea, between Spitzbergen and Greenland. They establish radio contact, and Anderson transmits a coded message: NAUTILUS 90 NORTH. (Ninety degrees north latitude being the location of the pole.) Two days later, the voyage ends when Nautilus docks at Iceland. She has traveled 1,830 miles underwater, and her scientific crew’s sonar measurements have vastly expanded mankind’s knowledge of the Arctic Ocean, including the depth of the sea at the pole-13,410 feet.

She has also proven travel from ocean to ocean through the Arctic is doable. In the future, it would become almost routine-at least for subs.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower decorates Anderson with the Legion of Merit. His crew members receive the first Presidential Unit Citation ever to be awarded in peacetime.

The Nautilus goes on to serve for over 25 years, steaming almost 500,000 miles, before being decommissioned on March 3, 1980. She is designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, and in 1986 she goes on exhibit at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

The slideshow contains pictures taken by the navy and the Associated Press in 1958 and photos taken at the Submarine Museum in 2004 by the author.

The U.S. Navy released a short movie about the voyage, narrated by Edward R. Murrow. To view, click here.