A German U-boat sunk a British troop ship, the Laconia, killing
more than 1,400 men on September 12, 1942. The commander
of the German sub, Capt. Werner Hartenstein, realizing that
Italians POWs were among the passengers, strove to aid in
their rescue.

The Laconia, a former Cunard White Star ship put to use to
transport troops, including prisoners of war, was in the South
Atlantic bound for England when it encountered U-156, a
German sub (below). It was under the command of Captain
Rudolph Sharp.

Werner Hartenstein
(27 February 1908 – 8 March 1943)

CARLATA BRADLEY

On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus
accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic
North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine dived at
Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under
the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then went 
on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe.

The USS Nautilus (above), the world’s first nuclear submarine,was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy
Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a Russian-born engineer who
joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in
charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work
on an atomic submarine. 

In 1952, the Nautilus‘ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman,
and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a
bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the
Thames River at Groton, Connecticut.

On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus
accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic
North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus
dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles
under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world.