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View Full Version : Under the sea 51 years ago today...

CCIP
02-03-08, 07:44 PM
Had this one pop up on Wiki earlier today in the "on this day" section and I thought this was worth making note of :up:


1957 – USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logged her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
I always found those science-fiction-to-reality things very cool!

Where are you Bill, tell us more about that great old sub of yours :p

[edit, oops, 51, not 61 years...]
Torplexed
02-03-08, 07:47 PM
Atomic power was once the epitome of all things futuristic. Makes it even harder to think it was 61 years ago.
CCIP
02-03-08, 07:48 PM
51 years. I made a typo :dead:
Torplexed
02-03-08, 08:11 PM
Got to thinking about the world's first atomic-powered merchant ship, the USS Savannah. After rusting at dockside for years she is being turned into a musuem ship. Too bad the atoms for peace idea was never economically viable.
CCIP
02-03-08, 08:22 PM
Got to thinking about the world's first atomic-powered merchant ship, the USS Savannah. After rusting at dockside for years she is being turned into a musuem ship. Too bad the atoms for peace idea was never economically viable.

Wow, good thing she's being preserved. I looked it up and she's a very stylish (in a 50's retro-futuristic kind of way!) ship.

This fact amused me about the ship though...

Cost: $46,900,000 ($18,600,000 for the ship, and $28,300,000 for the nuclear plant and fuel)

Maybe that's why the idea never took off. It sure looks pretty scary on paper :lol:
Torplexed
02-03-08, 08:40 PM
Maybe that's why the idea never took off. It sure looks pretty scary on paper :lol:
Yeah...that was part of it. The other factor was that the crew was more expensive to train and pay. Atomic reactors being more high-maintenance than standard oil-fired boilers. :lol: She had a swimming pool and some other nice amenities tho. Although there have been about three other civilian atomic-powered ships since, the idea never really took off.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/4/49/270px-NS_Savannh.jpg
Ishmael
02-03-08, 09:55 PM
Today is also the 49th anniversary of the day the music died. 49 years ago, Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash.