American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 13

cup of coffee. “We sure have the
situation in hand.” Then he
nodded his head slightly. “I’m just
glad we don’t have to walk all
the way across that ice up there
to the Pole, the way Admiral
Peary did it.
No one disagreed with Doc.
Point of No Return
Saturday, August 2, 1958
As I watched Lyon’s gear trace
the bottom of the ice above us
and observed the steady work of
the watch standers all around me,
I began to wonder about the
mythical “point of no return.”
That was the spot where, if we
had trouble, it would be better
to continue on northward than
to try to return to Point Barrow
behind us.

A chart depicting the route taken by the Nautilus during Operation Sunshine - its journey to the North Pole.
The Nautilus left Seattle on June 9, 1958, entering the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait on June 19.
Deep draft ice forced the submarine to turn back, however, and the Nautilus removed to Pearl Harbor to
await better ice conditions. They finally re-embarked on their journey on July 23.
Navigating through the Arctic would be treacherous. In addition to its remoteness and the danger of ice,
magnetic compasses and gyrocompasses become inaccurate. The Nautilus was fitted with a special gyrocompass built by the Sperry Rand company just prior to the mission in the hopes that it would work.
Otherwise, the submarine would be forced to completely estimate its location and course.

I had calculated that such a point
would be at the “Pole of
Inaccessibility,” the geographic center of the ice pack, the point
that was the most difficult to get to from any direction. From
where we were at that time, it was about four hundred miles our
side of the geographic Pole.
With 116 people aboard, Nautilus ran at six hundred feet below
the surface at eighteen to twenty knots, following a course of
000 degrees true, just about forty-four hours away from reaching
our first objective. With our television monitor, we could watch
the ice scudding past overhead like wind-blown summer clouds.
We worked