September 30, 1954

Eugene P. Wilkinson

USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, is commissioned

Nautilus entered the fleet as a commissioned warship that day — and then stayed tied up at Groton until the following January.

Wilkinson takes command

The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Nautilus (SSN-571) at Groton, Connecticut, on 30 September 1954, making the world's first nuclear-powered submarine an active naval vessel.

Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson assumed command during the ceremony, which was held at the yard where General Dynamics' Electric Boat division had built the ship.

When the colors were first raised, the crew regarded that moment — not the earlier launch — as the ship's formal entry into the fleet.

A warship at the dock

Nautilus did not leave under nuclear power that day. It remained dockside for additional construction and testing.

The signal "Underway on nuclear power" was not sent at commissioning; it came on 17 January 1955 at 11:00 a.m.

Launch, commissioning and first nuclear-powered voyage were three separate milestones spread across almost a year.

The fourth ship to carry the name

Nautilus was the fourth commissioned U.S. Navy vessel of the name. The Navy traces it variously to a Greek-derived word, to the chambered mollusk, and to Jules Verne's fictional submarine.

The predecessors included a schooner and, in the twentieth century, a submarine chaser.

The famous 1958 transit beneath the North Pole came four years after the ceremony at Groton.

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