USS Nautilus, Nuclear submarine museum in Groton, United States.
USS Nautilus is a nuclear submarine in Groton, Connecticut, now serving as a museum vessel at the Submarine Force Museum. The craft measures 97.5 meters long and 8.5 meters wide and houses several levels with a command center, torpedo rooms, crew quarters, and engine compartments.
The vessel launched in January 1954 and became the first submarine powered by a nuclear reactor instead of diesel engines. It reached the North Pole beneath the ice in August 1958 and was decommissioned in 1980 before becoming a museum.
The name refers to Jules Verne's famous underwater vessel from his novels about ocean exploration. Visitors today walk through the narrow corridors and chambers where sailors lived and worked for weeks without seeing daylight.
Admission is free and a visit typically takes between one and two hours depending on how thoroughly you explore the compartments. The interior connects through narrow hatches and steep ladders, so visitors should be comfortable on their feet.
If you look carefully, you can still find original equipment like kitchen utensils and bunk frames that were used in the cramped spaces back then. Some control panels and instruments carry handwritten notes from the active service days of the vessel.
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