Where are the pictures of submarines at the north pole before the industrial revolution? Eh? Where are they? There are none. Well, it just goes to show how much warming human activity has caused. H/t to WUWT commenters Stephen Skinner, Crosspatch, and Glenn. There’s quite an interesting read at John Daly’s website, including a description of “the Gore Box”. The point illustrated here: the North Pole is not static, ice varies significantly. (US Navy Photo)īut in 1993, it’s back to thin ice again: USS Pargo at the North Pole in 1993. It was that way again in 1962: Seadragon (SSN-584), foreground, and her sister Skate (SSN-578) during a rendezvous at the North Pole in August 1962Īnd of course then there’s this famous photo:īut contrast that to 1999, just 12 years later, lots of ice: USS Hawkbill at the North Pole, Spring 1999. Here are some screencaps from the newsreel: Note the feet of the deckhand for thickness perspective Ice going over the side after chipping
– Hester, James E., Personal email communication, December 2000 We were not able to surface through ice thicker than 3 feet.” On both trips we were able to find open water. The wind came up and closed the opening within 2 hours. We came up through a very large opening in 1958 that was 1/2 mile long and 200 yards wide. The ice would also close in and cover these areas crushing together making large ice ridges both above and below the water. We had sonar equipment that would find these open or thin areas to come up through, thus limiting any damage to the submarine.
#DEC 1958 NAUTILUS SUBMARINE PHOTO CRACK#
The Ice at the polar ice cap is an average of 6-8 feet thick, but with the wind and tides the ice will crack and open into large polynyas (areas of open water), these areas will refreeze over with thin ice. The ice moves from Alaska to Iceland and the wind and tides causes open water as the ice breaks up. We surfaced near the North Pole in the winter through thin ice less than 2 feet thick. “the Skate found open water both in the summer and following winter.
(US Navy Photo)įor example, one crew member aboard the USS Skate which surfaced at the North Pole in 1959 and numerous other locations during Arctic cruises in 19 said: USS Skate during an Arctic surfacing in 1959. Now, the Skate’s twelve-day three thousand mile voyage under the ice, shown in Defense Department films, demonstrates that missile-carrying nuclear subs could lurk under the Polar Ice Cap, safe from attack, to emerge at will, and fire off H-bomb missiles to any target on Earth.Ī powerful, retaliatory weapon for America’s defense. In 1931, he was the first to attempt a submarine cruise to the Pole. Once, at the North Pole, where crewmen performed a mission of sentiment, scattering the ashes of polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins. The Skate’s job is to see if it can be done when the Arctic winter is at its worst, with high winds pushing the floes into motion and the ice as thick as twenty-five feet. Last year, the Skate and her sister-sub Nautilus both cruised under the Arctic ice to the Pole. USS Skate heads north on another epic cruise into the strange underseas realm first opened up by our nuclear submarines. Some additional captures from the newsreel below show that the ice was pretty thin then, thin enough to assign deckhands to chip it off after surfacing.The newsreel is interesting, here is the transcript.ġ958 Newsreel: USS Skate, Nuclear Sub, Is First to Surface at North Pole Skate (SSN-578), surfaced at the North Pole, 17 March 1959. sensationalism is all the rage these days. What would NSIDC and our media make of a photo like this if released by the NAVY today? Would we see headlines like “NORTH POLE NOW OPEN WATER”? Or maybe “Global warming melts North Pole”? Perhaps we would.
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