Nautilus to Columbia: 70 Years of the US Navy’s Nuclear Submarines

352 pages

Dr James Bosbotinis

This is an impressive-looking book, both by virtue of its size and the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine on the front cover. The author, James C Goodall, who introduces himself as “an Air Force guy and one who loves spooky aircraft and ‘Black Programs’”, sought to provide a book “that covered all the nuclear-powered submarines of the US Navy”, in part because of his love of machines, “not just aircraft, anything mechanical and awesome.” The book starts with a one-page overview of Admiral Hyman Rickover, a foreword by William Rogalski Jr, who served both in the US Navy and industry, covers the loss of the USS Thresher and Scorpion, and then a brief history of the S1W reactor, which provides “the basis for nearly all of the US nuclear-powered submarine and surface combat ships.”

The majority of the book then covers every US nuclear-powered submarine built, divided by class, starting with attack boats. Each class is introduced with the namesake boat, the specifications are provided, as is a one-page overview of the service career. That is, Nautilus, Seawolf, the Skate-, Skipjack-, Triton, Halibut, Tullibee, the Permit-, Sturgeon-, Glenard P Lipscomb-, Los Angeles-, Seawolf-, and Virginia-classes, followed by the SSBNs: George Washington-, Ethan Allen-, Lafayette-, James Madison-, Benjamin Franklin, and the Ohio-classes. Each and every submarine of the respective classes is featured, with the month and year of commissioning and decommissioning, and over typically, one or two pages, various photos of the submarine. Following the Ohio-class, Nautilus to Columbia covers the NR-1 ‘research’ submarine, the Acoustic Research Department Bayview described as the “Navy’s Area 51”, the Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile, and concludes with the next-generation SSBN, the Columbia-class.

This is a lavishly illustrated book, it is very much a photographic history of the US Navy’s nuclear submarine force, showing both day-today activities and notable events, for example, on page 113, the first coordinated surfacing at the North Pole by the USS Sea Devil, Billfish and HMS Superb. Whilst on page 140, the USS Parche is shown underway for Operation IVY BELLS with the deliberately misnamed “DSRV Simulator” aft. There are occasional typos, including a Ticonderoga-class cruiser being referred to as a destroyer, an image showing a helicopter providing a vertical replenishment inadvertently omits the helicopter type, and there is a mix-up on page 346 of the text for two captions – one showing an artist image of a Columbia-class boat at sea with an image of BAE Systems propulsor used on US and Royal Navy submarines. There are also a few instances where the overview of a submarine class is not provided, for example, the Glenard P Lipscomb and Ohio-classes – the class specification is included but no historical summary. These are minor issues and do not detract from the overall quality of the book. Nautilus to Columbia is very much a coffee table book, featuring an excellent selection of photographs, and would certainly appeal to anyone with an interest in submarines or the US Navy. It is recommended.