Wilkins Arctic Submarine Nautilus

Notes

In early 1931, Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins and American arctic pioneer Lincoln Ellsworth teamed up with the idea of taking a submarine under the ice to the North Pole. The joint venture was known as the Wilkins-Ellsworth Trans-Arctic Expedition, and after raising capital from various investors including famous newspaper man William Randolph Hearst, Wilkins approached submarine engineer and industrialist Simon Lake to assist with the task.

At first, Lake offered Wilkins his old submarine Defender, but Wilkins immediately judged the old boat to be too small for the arduous task. Wilkins and Lake approached the Navy and were able to secure an agreement to lease the decommissioned submarine ex-USS O-12 (SS-73), which was laying in reserve at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This would be an ideal situation for Lake, as his company had built the O-12 during WWI and he was intimately familiar with her design. The obsolete O-12 was no longer wanted by the Navy so they transferred ownership of the boat to the U.S. Shipping Board, who then agreed to lease the boat back to the newly formed Lake & Danenhower, Inc. for conversion for Wilkins. Former USN submarine commander Sloan Danenhower was now a business associate of Simon Lake, and his expertise got him the job of being the expedition's submarine skipper. The Shipping Board agreed to lease the boat for one dollar for one year, with the only other stipulation being that when the expedition was completed that the boat be returned to Navy control or be scuttled in water at least 1,200 feet deep (370 m), so that it could not be used in military operations against the United States.

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