A historic voyage: USS Nautilus crew celebrates 60th anniversary of Operation Sunshine
By Sierra Henry
Published in News on August 3, 2018 5:50 AM
They were the first to sail beneath the ice of the North Pole, and they did it aboard the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.
They were the crew members of USS Nautilus -- a 320-foot ship named after the fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."
Today, the crew of the Nautilus celebrates the 60th anniversary of Operation Sunshine, a top-secret mission by the U.S. government to locate a passageway beneath the ice fields of the Arctic Basin, a long-sought-after shortcut connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Laura Alley who lives in Wakefield, remembers her father, Frank Holland, who maintained the submarine's engine during the operation. The mission, which only a few people knew the true purpose of at the time, was the Uinted States' latest move in an escalating space race with Russia.
"It was very top secret because at that time Russia had just sent up Sputnik and this was the United States' answer to Sputnik," Alley said. "The Nautilus was the first peaceful use of nuclear power.
"This is the very first nuclear ship in the Navy. If Nautilus failed, we probably wouldn't have a nuclear Navy right now, or wouldn't have what we have today."
Prior to Nautilus' launch, the Navy used diesel-powered submarines that had batteries. As long as the batteries were going, the ships could stay under the water until they had to resurface to charge. With Nautilus' nuclear-powered engine, the crew could stay beneath the ocean's surface as long as they had food.
Born in Ocala, Florida, on July 27, 1930, Holland enlisted in the Navy when he turned 18 years of age. After returning from boot camp in San Diego and scoring high marks on the entrance exam, he turned down a position to relocate because he was only planning to stay in the Navy for four years. Later, he was asked to join the Nautilus' crew, which would require him to re-enlist for six years.
THE MISSION
The year was 1958, and the crew of Nautilus did not know the importance of their mission, or the danger they would face. Setting sail from the port of Seattle, Washington on June 9, Holland and his crew embarked on Operation Sunshine under Cmdr. William Anderson.
Writing in the "All Florida Weekly Magazine" in November that same year, Holland recounted the air of secrecy that had surrounded the mission.
"We hadn't learned of Operation Sunshine or the meetings our captain had had with the president and admirals at the Pentagon. Operation Sunshine had become top secret, and it was the first time I know that Cmdr. Anderson didn't include us in cruising orders," Holland wrote.
"We know now why he couldn't. We were to pass near the Soviet submarine operating areas in the Bering Strait and the Navy wanted to guard against the remotest possibility of an incident occurring.
"Once at sea again, and after learning our true voyage, we began to realize the importance of our goal: it was more than just an adventurous 'first' to the North Pole by water."
Nautilus continued its mission to reach the pole after effectively evading the Soviets' eyes, but was met with unexpected complications upon entering the Bering Strait.
Huge chunks of raft ice that had broken away from the Siberian coast were floating toward them, forcing the ship to retreat to the south for a second route north on the Alaskan side of St. Lawrence Island.
The crew passed through the strait without any further issues, but ran into trouble once again in the shallow Chukchi Sea.
At 68 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, the horizon was covered in more ice drifts. Nautilus submerged for what they thought would be clear water to the Greenland side of the cap.
At 68 feet below the surface, the crew was met with several nearly impossible barriers -- ridges of ice so tall that they nearly scraped Nautilus' sail, even as it dove 140 feet below the surface -- just 20 feet from the bottom.
"In the engine room, we didn't know that our officers in the control room were asking for God's help during these dark moments," Holland wrote of the incident. "Had we known what was going on, we would have been praying too."
Seeing the obstacles that stood in their way, Nautilus returned to Pearl Harbor, where the crew waited for the ice to thin.
In July of 1958, Nautilus set sail for its final voyage to the North Pole from Hawaii. On the 120,000-mile trek, the submarine reached the pole and surfaced.
"It was probably the most amazing job of navigation ever performed in nautical history -- on target throughout 1,830 miles for 96 hours -- under ice!" Holland wrote. "I couldn't help but compare this frozen wasteland with the colorful, warm and sunny Florida that I had left to become a submariner.
"I thought of my girl, Barbara Butler, so far away in Ocala. I wondered if she would be surprised when she learned about this voyage -- and proud too if we licked this ice and were the first to navigate its uncharted waters. ... That was the last daylight I saw until we made our historic rise to the surface near Greenland."
REMEMBERING NAUTILUS
Once the crew rose to the surface of the North Pole, Holland and fellow John Krawczyk designed and created a cancellation stamp and envelope cachet stamp to mark the occasion.
"My dad took a piece of the gasket and cut out a postmark so they would be able to stamp the letters with a postmark," Alley said.
The postmark is now on display at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
Later in his life, Holland joined the Nautilus Alumni Association, becoming its president in 2008. Holland also designed and coordinated the placement of a pedestal in honor of the Nautilus and its crew members in the Ocala Marion County Veterans Park in Ocala, Florida.
The pedestal, which had 80 bricks with the name and rank of Nautilus' crew members and family, was to be dedicated on April 30, 2011.
On April 1, 2011, Holland passed away suddenly, and it was up to Alley and her family to finish the pedestal and celebration. In his honor, Alley began working on a second pedestal that was placed behind her father's.
"Daddy had just really wanted a second pedestal and I used to go to the veterans park with him when I'd go home," Alley said. "The veteran's park meant a lot to me as well and I was kind of a daddy's girl, so a lot of things that my dad liked, I liked.
"I mainly did it because Daddy wanted it done and, in some ways, it was my way of dealing with his death. When it all finished, I had to deal with Daddy being gone. It just made me feel closer to him being able to work on something that meant a lot to him."
Today, Alley remembers her father and the history of the Nautilus fondly. She is proud of his accomplishments, and is still an active member of the Nautilus Alumni Association, where she works to track down missing crew members and their families.
"When I was in fourth grade they had a little blurb about the Nautilus in my social studies book and the picture they had actually had my Dad in it," Alley said. "It's just kind of neat seeing that my dad made history. I loved him a lot, and I miss him a lot."