Voyage of the Nautilus 1931
It is the journey for which Sir Hubert Wilkins is perhaps best known but, as fiascos go, it was also up there at the top of the list. This video covers the departure of The Nautilus from New York before media, dignitaries and Lady Suzanne.
A stricken Nautilus in the calm of the Arctic ice
After delays for repairs and a lack of money to undertaker those repairs, Wilkins and The Nautilus reached their last stop, Spitszbergen, Norway, before their assault of the North Pole itself. This film extract comes for around that area and then beyond in the Arctic ice itself. Film courtesy of the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center.
The voyage of The Nautilus in 1931 is perhaps the adventure for which Sir Hubert Wilkins in best known. However, its notoriety combines both great failure and triumph, recklessness and inspiration, loyalty and treachery.
Men on the bow and on the ice.
Starting off with typical Hearst media led fanfare on the docks of New York, the old Great War sub proved no match for the turbulent seas of the North Atlantic, needing to be towed to Ireland after breaking down in the middle of nowhere.
The Nautilus makes it way between the floes.
But in true Wilkins style he went on and eventually got to Spitsbergen Norway, its last stop before the assault on the Pole. However, sabotage there, exposed only after they had reached the Arctic ice, placed all at risk. Nonetheless, Wilkins took the plunge and became the first man to see what lay beneath the ice. These were insights gratefully acknowledged by the US armed services for the rest of his life and indeed beyond it.
A tooth being removed – not the worst discomfort experienced by this sailor on this voyage.
