Sabotage in the Arctic:
Fate of the Submarine Nautilus
Sub barely sticks its nose under, but can rightfully claim to be the first submarine beneath Arctic ice
Reviewed by Edward Lundquist, Senior Science Advisor Alion Science and Technology
When Sir Hubert Wilkins launched his ety. "Wilkins, I believe, wanted badly to submarine under-the-ice expedition in Sabotage in the Arctic: Fate be accepted by the scientific community. 1931, the world was running out of of the Submarine Nautilus Indeed he kept advancing the position places to discover and first-feats to perthat the polar regions affect weather on a by Stewart B. Nelson form. Was this a publicity stunt, or a real global scale and that permanent weather scientific mission of discovery? What stations needed to be established. appears to be, on the surface, a story ISBN 978-1-4257-6513-2 However, this was an expensive underabout a big idea that couldn't stay afloat taking and Wilkins had no other choice actually has a great deal of submerged The book can be ordered from but to use publicity to attract other www.sabotageinthearctic.com messages. financial sponsors-such as William Born in 1888 in Australia, and an Randolph Hearst." accomplished aviator, naturalist and ornithologist, George His plan was to acquire a specially built submarine, Hubert Wilkins was knighted by King George V of designed for the polar ice. But instead he had to settle on England when in 1928 he and Carl Eielson became the a weary decommissioned Navy sub left over from World first to fly across the Arctic in an airplane. Wilkins and War I, the O-12 (SS 73), of a class the Sailors referred to Eiselen's journey was proclaimed by the New York Times as "pig boats." as the "greatest flight in history." So, Wilkins was no "The original submarine considered was Simon Lake's stranger to fame and fortune. He dreamed of Jules commercial Defender, about 90 some feet in length," says Verne's fantasy of sailing beneath the ice-and brought it to Nelson. "The availability of the O-Class arose because of reality. the London Disarmament Treaty. Compared to the Wilkins, with the support and major financial backing Defender, it certainly allowed a more diverse program to of American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth, raised the be undertaken. However, WW I-vintage subs were never additional funds to sail beneath the ice in the name of sci- intended for an environment as hostile as the Arctic. But, entific research, but many others, according to author it was the best they could do, at the time." Stewart Nelson, thought Wilkins was just seeking notoriSimon Lake designed and built submarines for the Navy,
40 MTR April 2008
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