What Happened To The Nautilus?

In August 1931, a submarine approaches  the edge of the known world.

It’s about to enter a massive frozen unknown. A part  of the world remains largely unexplored.

On board are a group of daring  explorers determined to uncover the Arctic’s great mysteries.

Setting out to not only reach the top of the world,  

but to discover what lies hidden beneath it. In a new kind of exploration machine.  

Enduring cramped conditions and frigid  temperatures, they’ll push ahead for thousands  

of kilometers under the ice. But as days turn to weeks, the expedition will go horribly wrong.

For centuries, explorers tried repeatedly to reach  the top of the world. At first, they used ships,  

battling frigid temperatures and treacherous  sea ice. Their vessels often became trapped,  

stranding crews with little hope of rescue.  Later, explorers tried with dog sleds or even  

on foot, often ending tragically. Over the  centuries hundreds of explorers perished.  

So challenging was the Arctic,  that the first undisputed discovery  

of the North Pole wasn’t until 1926. And it was only from the air, in a modified  

airship that never even touched the ground. So, when accomplished explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins  

planned to set foot on the North Pole, he was  convinced there was a better way to do it.  

The North Pole doesn’t lie on a continental  land mass like the South Pole. Instead,  

it’s located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean  amid waters almost always covered in ice.  

Wilkins was convinced that a submarine  would be the ultimate way to reach the  

North Pole. And fitted with the latest  scientific equipment, it could help  

solve the Arctic's greatest mysteries.

Wilkins would set off in the summer.

First,  sailing across the Atlantic, then all the way  up to the Arctic Circle. From there, his  

expedition would head West, spanning over three  thousand kilometers. Over six weeks, he'd zigzag  

underneath the ice, emerging from the deep through  any openings, before finally ending in Alaska.  

To fund the expedition, Wilkins put up his  own savings and raised money from wherever  

he could. He lectured day and night, and even  wrote a book outlining his ambitions plans.  

But it still wasn't enough. He’d need serious  backing. And one sure way to get it… was to turn  

his scientific pursuit into a media sensation. A voyage under the sea ice was the kind of thing  

that would sell out newspapers. So  Wilkins made a deal with newspaper  

magnate William Randolph Hearst. A man  with a flare for sensationalism.

Hearst would get exclusive publishing rights,  and Wilkins would get his funding.

And to create even more buzz, Hearst  orchestrated for Wilkins to meet up at  

the pole with a second expedition. The massive  airship Graf Zeppelin would fly overhead just  

as Wilkins emerged from the ice. Captivating  the public with headlines of the pole being  

conquered from above and below. If he could pull off the stunt,  

Hearst offered Wilkins a one hundred  and fifty thousand dollar prize.

All that was left, was to find a submarine.

Wilkins planned to reach the North Pole in the  Nautilus. A retired World War One-era attack  

sub that had been heavily modified by renowned  naval architect Simon Lake. And it would have to  

do what no submarine had ever done before. The voyage would be fraught with danger,  

including the risk of a collision with the sea  ice. So Lake reinforced the Nautilus’s bow with  

heavy steel plates and concrete, and added a  hydraulic impact absorber to soften the blow.  

But the ice above could also prove deadly. So  Lake fitted the topside with sledge runners,  

which would allow it to slide along the  bottom of the ice, much like a toboggan.  

A hydraulic retractable guide arm would also  keep a safe distance from hazards above.  

The Nautilus could be confined under  the ice for days at a time. But it  

would eventually need to surface to take  on air and recharge its batteries. A lack  

of openings in the ice could doom the crew. So Lake innovated a series of drills capable  

of boring through the ice. Allowing  the Nautilus’s crew to drill through  

up to twenty feet to reach the surface. In place of the original torpedo tubes,  

Lake added a pressurized diving chamber,  where the crew could lower instruments  

to the ocean floor, or conduct dives. In all, Simon Lake made dozens of modifications.  

Originally built for World War One, the Nautilus  would now have to battle mother nature.  

On March 16, 1931, as the expedition prepared  to set off, Wilkins put on a brave face for  

reporters. “The men are just having things  on board now for the final inspection before  

leaving the dockyard. We expect in about  six or eight months to have made the trip  

two thousand miles under the ice. Starting from  Spitsbergen somewhere about the first of July”.  

But deep down, Wilkins was worried.  He feared many of the sub’s novel  

features were unnecessary. Even dangerous. He had reservations about the sledge runners,  

the ice drills, and the shock absorber Which he  worried would actually lodge itself into the ice,  

trapping the Nautilus beneath the surface. Wilkins insisted on installing a photosensitive  

electrical cell to measure the thickness  of the ice above so he’d know where to  

surface. But Simon Lake denied the request. The Nautilus was Lake’s submarine. He’s the one  

who leased it from the U.S. Navy, and he had  the final word on any modifications. Wilkins  

merely sub-chartered it for the expedition. There was little he could do, but accept the  

submarine as it was. But the wonder gadgets  would cause headaches before the expedition  

even began. Repeatedly forcing the sub back into  port for repairs. It was one thing to invent  

novel features. Trying to retrofit them onto  a tired old sub, created all kinds of issues.  

Confirming Wilkins’s worst fears, the ice  drills didn't even work during testing,  

and a separate engineering firm was  called in to try to figure it all out.  

The weeks turned into months, and Wilkins  was beginning to feel the pressure.  

If the Nautilus was to meet the Graf Zeppelin at  the North pole, time was of the essence. Otherwise  

Wilkins would lose out on Hearst’s prize money. By June, Wilkins had had enough. Mechanical  

issues be damned, it was time to get going.

The journey across the Atlantic was grueling.  

The tiny sub was easily tossed around by fierce  North Atlantic storms.The crew were also beginning  

to learn just how uncomfortable the Nautilus was. The submarine was cramped and claustrophobic to  

begin with. Now loaded up for the expedition,  there was even less space. For twenty men  

there was just a single toilet out in the  open between two roaring diesel engines.  

The crew would have to spend their entire day  standing. Because there wasn't anywhere to sit.

Only a handful of bunks shared  amongst the men provided any relief.  

Wilkins sent Hearst daily radio updates  documenting harrowing journey.  

“This morning an extra heavy wave swept the deck  and carried away the screen before the bridge”  

Nearly everyone aboard was seasick. And  when the Nautilus’s bilge pump failed,  

sewage, oil, and vomit began to swill around  the crew's feet. But as the tiny sub battled  

the fierce Atlantic, things only got worse. “The fourth cylinder of our starboard engine is  

badly cracked.” Forced to shut down one of its two  engines, the Nautilus could only limp forward.  

On June 13th, a week into the journey, the  Nautilus stopped sending radio updates.  

And for several days, no one had any idea  about the fate of the sub and its crew.  

On June 15, the Battleship Wyoming found  the Nautilus drifting aimlessly about  

a thousand kilometers northeast of the  Azores, both engines had failed and the  

batteries were dead. Wilkins would now face  the humiliation of having his sub towed the  

rest of the way across the Atlantic. Worse still, four crew members quit,  

and the Nautilus once again needed major  repairs. It would take weeks for replacement  

parts to arrive from the United States. It meant, there was no longer enough time  

to catch up with the Graf Zeppelin.  And In a stunning blow, Wilkins could  

no longer claim Hearst’s prize money. The media also turned against him, running  

headlines that openly mocked his expedition. Wilkins was under mounting pressure. His  

submarine didn't work. His crew was demoralized  and winter was fast approaching. At this point,  

just about anyone else would have thrown in  the towel. But this was Sir Hubert Wilkins.  

Even months behind schedule,  Wilkins pressed ahead. On July 28th,  

the expedition finally left for the North Pole. The Nautilus was still riddled with problems,  

but the crew had gotten used to making  repairs on the go, and any major issues  

were fixed during scheduled stops. By August 15th, the Nautilus had reached  

the last inhabited land before the Arctic.  And Wilkins was finally sending out upbeat  

progress reports. And on the 19th, the  Nautilus reached the first ice flows.  

To celebrate, the men were given a  break from the cramped conditions,

and began collecting scientific data. Back home,  Hearst relayed fascinating new discoveries, like  

a warmer layer of water deep below the surface,  thought to be vital for predicting weather.  

After traveling a week in the ice, the Nautilus  reached 82 degrees north. Further than any  

vessel had ever made it under its own power. It looked like Wilkins would actually do it,  

he would travel a thousand  kilometers under the ice.

But as the world read about Wilkins's  achievements, onboard the Nautilus  

things were not as they seemed. Wilkins had  once again, merely put on a brave face.  

In reality, the crew were exhausted and freezing.  The Nautilus had no heat or insulation. Nothing  

but bare metal separated them from the frigid  arctic waters. The crew were constantly sickened  

with food poisoning and dosed with lead from  the soldering in the submarine’s pipes.

Attempting the Pole this late in the season would  be extremely dangerous, and without exception,  

everyone wanted to turn around and head home. Everyone, except Wilkins

On August 22nd he gave the order to dive  beneath the ice. But the Nautilus refused.  

The diving rudder, the mechanism  that controls vertical motion

underwater, just wouldn't respond. Wilkins sent a diver to investigate  

and he soon returned with a stunning discovery.  The rudder had simply disappeared. Maybe it had  

fallen off and somehow no one noticed? Or maybe  as Wilkins suspected, the crew had sabotaged the  

sub in an attempt to end the expedition. By this point, even Hearst was publicly  

urging Wilkins to return home. But again, things weren't what they  

seemed. In a private message, the Hearst  corporation pressured Wilkins to continue  

to the Pole …reminding him of their agreement. And that left Wilkins with an impossible decision.  

Return home to certain failure and financial  ruin, or press on and risk the lives of the crew.  

On August 31st Wilkins ordered the  ballast tanks flooded and trim set  

two degrees down. He would force the Nautilus  to submerge by ramming under the ice.  

The sound of the sledge runners scraping  against the ice reverberated right through  

the superstructure, as if the  Nautilus was being torn apart.  

It’s as though Wilkins had  lost his mind. He couldn't  

possibly reach the pole in the crippled sub. But faced with an endless string of setbacks,  

Wilkins seemed determined to prove a point. They pushed on for several kilometers before  

Wilkins ordered a test of the ice drills. For hours the crew tried in vain to bore  

through just a few feet of ice. Each time,  Simon Lake's patented drill would only go  

so far before jamming. It was hopeless. On September 6th, Wilkins finally sent  

out the radio transmission that by  now, everyone was hoping for.  

“Our Arctic trip is over…”

Wilkins had taken the Nautilus where 

no submarine had ever gone before. But it would be  another three decades before anyone successfully  

traversed the arctic underneath the ice. Sharing the same name the nuclear-powered  

USS Nautilus could stay submerged for weeks at a  time. It made its first Polar crossing in 1958,  

returning home to huge fanfare. By that point  Wilkins’s attempt had long been forgotten.  

The original Nautilus now lies sunk on the  ocean floor off the coast of Norway. After  

the crew returned from the Arctic, the sub  was deemed too worn and damaged to be worth  

saving. And it was deliberately sunk. Prior to the nautilus expedition, Wilkins  

was considered among the greatest explorers of the  20th century. Having made immense contributions to  

our understanding of the North and South Poles. But his final expedition left him financially  

ruined and largely forgotten by history. After passing away at the age of seventy,  

Wilkins's final wishes were fulfilled,  when the crew of the U.S.S. Skate scattered  

his ashes at the North Pole.  

In the dying days of the U.S.S.R., 

the Soviets begin working on a mysterious  project straight out of science fiction.  

They’re preparing to launch the  first in a series of artificial suns.  

Massive orbital satellites with the power to turn  night into day. Illuminating large areas of the  

planet to generate power, light up entire  cities, and grow plants in the far north.  

“They will transform perpetual night into  daylight. There could eventually be a whole  

network of those cosmic spotlights. You’re  talking about something which is several  

miles across. It’s the last vestige of the  old Soviet dream of industrializing space.”  

This is the little known story  of one of the most bizarre and  

fascinating space projects in history. And you can learn more about it in my  

feature coming next month to Nebula. Nebula is where you can watch hours of  

exclusive Mustard videos that aren't  available anywhere else. Videos that  

explore the fascinating stories behind iconic  machines like the legendary F-117 Nighthawk,  

the Mig-31 Foxhound, and the M-50 Bounder.  And fantastic unrealized concepts like the  

insane soviet proposal for ground effect  aircraft carriers, the MiG-25 Business Jet,  

and the largest aircraft ever imagined,  the incredible Lockheed CL-1201.  

Nebula recently received its biggest update yet.  With new categories like History and Science,  

it’s never been easier to discover content  you’ll love. There’s also an entire section  

now dedicated to news, curated by the TLDR News  team to keep you informed about world events.  

And we’ve just announced an exciting new batch  of Originals in development, covering a wide  

spectrum of fact and fictional content. You can already start watching the War Room,  

from the team behind RealLifeLore,  and get a monthly deep dive into  

ongoing conflicts around the world. Nebula isn’t like other streaming platforms.  

It’s owned directly by us, the creators, and that  means your support goes directly into improving  

the platform and funding high quality projects  that otherwise could never have been made.  

It’s never been easier to access Nebula.  With monthly and yearly subscription options,  

and Lifetime memberships which allow you to pay  only once to get unlimited access, forever.  

Sign up using the link below to support Mustard,  and get 40% off an annual subscription.