August 2005

ALUMNI NEWS

AU Alum Explores First Arctic Submarine

Nautilus being towed into Portsmouth, England, 1931 Photo Courtesey of American Philosophical Society

On September 13th, Stewart Nelson, CAS/BA '63, will lay his eyes on a sight that hasn’t been seen in 74 years. Inside the confines of the two-person submersible called JAGO, Drs. Nelson and Hans Fricke will explore the world’s first Arctic submarine, Nautilus, exacly as it has sat 1,138 feet under water on the bottom of a Bergen, Norway, fjord. Scuttled in 1931, the Nautilus was part of the Wilkins-Ellsworth Trans Arctic Submarine Expedition of 1931. The mission was an attempt by Australian Sir Hubert Wilkins to be the first
to cross the Arctic Ocean, from Norway to Alaska, by going under the Arctic ice pack via the North Pole. Although the sub made the first leg of its journey, it was forced to return to Norway early due to its deteriorating conditions.

An important historical artifact that was seemingly forgotten by history, the Nautilus was rediscovered by Nelson, a former adjunct faculty member at AU, in 2000 while he was doing unrelated research on airships. “I came across a reference to a submarine that was supposed to liaison with a Graf Zeppelin airship in the Arctic and I was immediately intrigued,” said Nelson.

Fascinated, Nelson didn’t want the Nautilus to be lost in history. He spent five years trying to obtain funding and equipment for an expedition to document the submarine, but had trouble finding backers. That was until October 2004 when he was put into contact with the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Already doing dive work in the North Atlantic, the institute agreed to let Nelson use their submersible, JAGO, in September 2005 to make dives to photograph the Nautilus site. After securing additional funding from Holland-America Line, Tihssen Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society, Nelson’s dream became a reality.

Nelson, scientific advisor for the expedition, will work with project leader Fricke to make three dives to document the Nautilus site.

“We have sonar imaging of the site and we know it is sitting upright and looks to be in reasonably good shape,” said Nelson. The video and photographic footage taken from the dives will be used to produce a documentary about the submarine’s past and present.

The program was recognized by The Explorer’s Club and will have the honor of carrying the Club’s flag on the expedition. After completion of the dives, the Bergen Maritime Museum plans to have the Nautilus designated as a national historical site.

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