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Historic Ship Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum Historic Ship Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum Historic Ship Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum Historic Ship Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum

Visitors can board the Nautilus , the first nuclear-powered submarine and experience first hand what it was like to be a member of the crew. The museum documents the development of submarines, from David Bushnell's Turtle , constructed in 1776 to the Navy's moder submarines. There are working periscopes, mini-subs, a 71-seat theater, gift shop and a picnic area that has seating for up to 50 people. It is the Navy's official submarine museum. Admission and park are free, and there is bus and RV parking. Reservations required for groups of 25 or more.

Tour time: 1-1.5 hours

Other amenities: Dining Nearby, Parking, Self-guided tours

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1 Crystal Lake Rd. Groton , CT 06349 United States

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Introducing TRHP Docent Academy II - NL's Black Heritage Trail Interpreter Training

Submarine force museum / uss nautilus.

The Submarine Force Museum is home to the Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear powered vessel. Nautilus was launched on January 21, 1954, with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower breaking the traditional bottle of champagne across its bow as she slid down the ways into the Thames River. It was also the first ship to go to the North Pole and first submarine to journey “20,000 leagues under the sea.” Visitors can explore the spaces where the crew of this historic vessel worked, ate, slept, and entertained themselves on their long voyages far beneath the ocean’s waves.

Operated by the United States Navy, the Submarine Force Museum boasts the finest collection of submarine artifacts in the world.  Visitors can peruse thousands of artifacts, documents and photographs spanning the history of submersibles. The museum traces the development of the “Silent Service” from David Bushnell’s Turtle, used in the Revolutionary War, to the Ohio and Virginia class submarines utilized by our military today.

The building was originally established in 1955 as a “Submarine Library” by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation and served as an archival and research center.  In April 1964, the entire collection was donated to the Navy and relocated to the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton. The 6,000-volume reference and research library is a world-renowned collection relative to the history of US submarines and is open to anyone looking for information on submarines or submarine history.

Address: 1 Crystal Lake Rd, Groton, CT, 06340 Distance from Groton Water Taxi Landing: 2.6 Miles (by car) Phone Number: (860) 694-3174 Summer Hours: Monday-Wednesday: 9am – 5pm; Tuesday – Closed Winter Hours  (November 1 – April 30): 9am – 4pm CLOSED TUESDAYS, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Closed for 10 days in April and November for upkeep. Admission: Free

Thames River Heritage Park Foundation P.O. Box 851 New London, CT 06320 Administration (860) 444-44 01 / Email

Water Taxi Operation (860) 333-6706

Historic USS Nautilus Reopens to the Public After Preservation Project

The world’s first nuclear powered submarine reopened for public tours friday after a $36m preservation project., by siobhan mcgirl • published september 9, 2022 • updated on september 9, 2022 at 7:28 pm.

The USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered submarine, reopened for public tours Friday after a $36 million preservation project.

Located at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, the Nautilus is the only nuclear powered naval vessel available to the public for general visitation. To celebrate the historic ship's return to public display, a large crowd gathered for a ceremony Friday afternoon.

Vice Admiral William Houston said that the Nautilus, which served the Navy for more than 25 years, has left a legacy that drives the force today.

"It has really epitomized our undersea advantage as a nation," said Vice Adm. Houston.

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Joseph Franks, a Nautilus veteran from Preston, attended the ceremony. He served on the Nautilus from 1970 to 1974.

“It’s a little heart-moving, just the fact that I was part of history," Franks said. “To be on the first one, at the time I didn’t realize what it meant, but I learned fairly soon.”

The Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and named a national historic landmark in 1982. The preservation has ensured the historic ship will be able to be active at the museum for the next 30 years, according to the Navy New London Public Affairs Office.

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Urban Explorations

A Smithsonian magazine special report

Step Inside a Famous Submarine

Where to visit historic subs this summer—or ride in a modern one

Michele Lent Hirsch

The idea of a ship that can travel underwater has been around far longer than the technology to make it possible. Famed inventor Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519, had an idea for a submersible vessel but kept his sketches a secret. He wouldn’t share them, he said, “because of the  evil nature of men  who practice assassination at the bottom of the sea.”

Da Vinci never constructed his machine, as far as we know, and it wasn’t until about 1723 that a submersible came to life. This craft worked 15 feet below the surface of the Thames River, and according to Tom Parrish, author of  The Submarine , even King James I visited onboard, despite the risk of drowning. Other inventors continued to make rudimentary submersibles until finally, in 1775, a man named David Bushnell created a machine that fits Parrish’s definition of a submarine: a vessel that can propel itself on water but also underneath it, and that can sink and rise again at will. Still, only one person could squeeze into Bushnell’s ship, which Parrish writes looked like two bathtubs clamped together, or like the shell of a strange oyster.

Today, submarines can be hulking—such as the  574-foot-long Soviet Typhoon —or sleek and miniature, like this two-person sub that  looks and moves remarkably like a killer whale . According to the company that sells it,  the orca-styled submersible can be yours  for $90,000.

For those who don’t want to join the Navy—or don’t have $90,000 lying around—there’s still hope for adventure. A host of famous submarines are on display around the world, ready for visitors to explore. And if you want to ride in one yourself, there are even some tourist submersibles that can take you underwater.

H. L. Hunley , North Charleston, South Carolina

To see the first combat submarine ever to sink an enemy ship—a big milestone in the history of warfare— visit  the  H. L. Hunley   in North Charleston, South Carolina. The  Hunley  earned that inaugural honor during the Civil War, when it was built by the Confederate side and used in 1864 to attack the USS  Housatonic  with a 135-pound torpedo. The Hunley itself sank a little while later, under mysterious circumstances . For years afterward, explorers and treasure-seekers tried to locate the boat, and P.T. Barnum even offered a  reward of $100,000 . Still, no dice. Finally, on May 3, 1995—20 years ago this month—a team of archeologists funded by adventure novelist Clive Cussler finally found it. But to actually raise the sub from the ocean required a whole new kind of effort. 

“Nobody has raised an entire ship before, so they had to go about figuring out how to do it,” Sherry Hambrick, who works for the nonprofit that now displays and preserves the Hunley , told Smithsonian.com. Luckily, the sub was in remarkable shape, Hambrick explained, because it had been buried relatively quickly in a  layer of silt  that protected it from salt erosion. In August 2000, the team dredged up the Hunley  and found a much more impressive machine than they’d imagined rotting beneath the sea. The vessel included technology they had not expected to find, such as a  flywheel  designed to act as a break for the propeller—an advanced feature for its time. 

The sub eventually went on display in North Charleston, where those who visit can learn not only about the vessel itself and the stories of its crew but about the technology used to recover it. Because the Hunle y is so old and still being studied, however, visitors can’t enter inside.

USS Nautilus , Groton, Connecticut

The world's first nuclear-powered submarine marked another important milestone in underwater technology. During the Cold War , the United States aimed to build a more advanced sub than had ever been seen before, and found success with the  USS Nautilus . Until 1954, as The New York Times explains , “submarines were basically surface ships that could submerge at slow speed for a few hours.” When the  Nautilus joined the fleet on September 30 that year, it had the unprecedented ability to produce its own power and fresh water—allowing it to stay underwater for weeks instead of hours. The boat also shattered previous records of submarine speed and distance, and in 1958 completed Operation Sunshine, a secret voyage that made it the first sub to go to the North Pole.

To explore the  Nautilus , head to the  Submarine Force Library and Museum  in Groton, Connecticut, and take a tour inside. Unlike the Hunley , which is older and more fragile, visitors can walk through the various chambers. The Nautilus still has two torpedoes on display, and visitors can also step into the Attack Center to see the buttons, keyholes and other instruments used to launch the weapons. (According to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, every submarine must shoot its weapons at least once as a demonstration. However, Navy archivists who searched through records for Smithsonian.com didn’t find evidence of the Nautilus ever firing on an actual target.) To get a feel for what it was like to live every day in this undersea vessel, visitors can tour some of the bunk beds and witness what little privacy the 11 officers and 105 enlisted men experienced each night and day. Pin-up photos of women  still hang  throughout the boat.

USS Cod , Cleveland, Ohio

The USS Cod is the only submarine  ever to have rescued  the crew from another country’s sub, and this July the  USS  Cod  Submarine Memorial  in Cleveland will host a live reenactment for the 70th anniversary of the event. After fighting in several battles during World War II and  destroying Japanese warships , the Cod made history in July 1945, after a Dutch sub named O-19 floundered on a coral reef in the South China Sea while heading toward the Philippines . The crew sent out a distress call, and the Cod arrived the next day to help. After spending two days trying to pull the O-19 free, both captains agreed it was hopeless. Instead, the Cod brought the 56 stranded Dutch sailors on board, then  destroyed  the coral-lodged sub with “two scuttling charges, two torpedoes, and 16 rounds from Cod 's 5-inch deck gun.” After the historic assistance, Dutch sailors  threw their rescuers a party , during which they got word that Japan had surrendered.

Take a Ride in a Modern Sub

Other submarines-turned-museums are scattered as far as India , Russia , Peru and Japan , each with their own story. (The one in India, for instance, named the INS Kursura , was built in Riga, in the former Soviet Union, and inducted into the Indian navy in 1969 . After 31 years of use, it was decommissioned and put on display in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.) 

Museum submarines tend to stay stationary, but there are plenty of options for riding inside more modern submersibles as a tourist. One company, U.S. Submarines , supplies vessels for visitors to plunge underwater in places such as Hawaii, Egypt, Bora-Bora and Taiwan. These tours often focus on the creatures you can see through the portholes, but on subs in places like the Cayman Islands, you can sometimes spy the  vestiges of shipwrecks .

There are also much smaller, more adventurous options, such as a three-person submersible that offers a week-long tour of sunken ships off the coast of Sicily, and that even sometimes picks up artifacts from the sea floor. If that’s too much action, more leisurely tourist subs offer adults on board  a drink . Though we can’t say what da Vinci might have made of all this, we’ve certainly come a long way since his drawings.

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Michele Lent Hirsch | | READ MORE

Michele Lent Hirsch is a writer, editor, and native New Yorker. She is currently at work on a nonfiction book about health and gender.

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Information about USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

• Awarded: August 2, 1951
• Keel laid: June 14, 1952
• Launched: January 21, 1954
• Commissioned: September 30, 1954
• Decommissioned: March 3, 1980
• Builder: Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, CT.
• Propulsion system: One nuclear reactor
• Propellers: Two
• Length: 324 feet (98.75 meters)
• Beam: 27.8 feet (8.47 meters)
• Draft: 22 feet (6.7 meters)
• Displacement: Surfaced: approx. 3,530 tons; Submerged: approx. 4,090 tons
• Speed: Surfaced: approx. 22 knots; Submerged: approx. +20 knots
• Armament: Six 533 mm torpedo tubes
• Crew: 13 Officers, 105 Enlisted

Nautilus History

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USS Nautilus launching ceremonies on January 21st 1954 at Groton, Connecticut

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The Nautilus Semi-Submarine Excursion

Quick Details

• Clock Duration: 45 minutes

Six feet under your imagination

Join our captain and his crew on an exploratory mission that is both educational and entertaining. This vessel features a fish food feeding system launched by torpedo buttons so you can feed the fish from your seat (for an additional charge). This makes for the most amazing, up-close views of Catalina Island’s spectacular, colorful fish and local marine life. No aquarium can compare with these exclusive views.

Fire One! Fire Two! You have not entered enemy waters; you are now in a marine preserved sanctuary where a feeding frenzy delight seafarers. Seasonal evening missions may also be offered for viewing nocturnal sea creatures active only after dark!

Book now and board the submarine for an unforgettable adventure.

Things to Know:

Participants must be able to transfer to vessel (walk 12 steps down to and up from seating area)

For safety, you should be in good health and free from claustrophobia or anxiety symptoms, high blood pressure, motion sickness, or other conditions that could be aggravated by this adventure

Late Policy

If you arrive late, we are not able to provide you with a refund. Our tours are scheduled to provide you with the best experience possible, and we are not able to make any exceptions if you are late. Please arrive 15 minutes early to ensure you are on time.

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There are great photo opportunities around every turn as we explore Avalon on a guided tour. View iconic landmarks and famous sites.

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Retired captain of first US nuclear submarine celebrates 100th birthday

In this file photo taken Jan. 21, 1954, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus (SSN 571) is in the Thames River shortly after a christening ceremony. (U.S. Navy)

(Tribune News Service) — Frank Fogarty knew nothing about nuclear physics on ships when he got pulled from his Korean War submarine duty to interview for a fledgling U.S. Navy program.

Fogarty, who just turned 100 years old in Spokane, has never forgotten meeting Hyman Rickover, known as the father of the world’s first atomic-powered submarines that began with the USS Nautilus in 1954. Its advantages meant speed and prolonged submersions.

He initially joined an officers’ team to develop Nautilus’ sister craft, the USS Seawolf, which launched in 1955. But by 1957, Fogarty had joined the Nautilus crew — first as an engineering officer, and then during 1963-67 as the Nautilus’ fifth commanding officer.

“I was in this position of being qualified for command, so Rickover picked from the younger submarine officers who were qualified, and he interviewed them all,” Fogarty said.

“He was the first to apply nuclear practically to something besides bombs. In my case, they flew me back from Korea to Washington for an interview with him, and it was an all-day deal. You interviewed with his staff; they all came up with their opinion of each interviewee.

“The last thing was you interviewed with the KOG — (what) Rickover was called for ‘Kindly old gentleman.’ He was not kindly; he was old,” Fogarty said.

Rickover was famous for his stress interviews, seeing if an officer entering the program could maintain composure and still think clearly if rattled. The program’s leader also drilled officers about any actions “that weren’t so great,” Fogarty said. “So it wasn’t the most pleasant thing.”

Fogarty thought that ended it.

“About three months later, we came back in from patrol and tied up to the pier in Japan with other submarines, and the captain of the submarine that was tied up where we came alongside of said, ‘I hear you have a Rickover guy on your boat.’“

He soon joined a Navy team working with General Electric to develop the Seawolf in Schenectady, New York. Simultaneously, he and other officers trained in reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College.

“We were sent there to be with the construction, to see it and then train in nuclear power, which we didn’t know what that was,” he said. “We also had a crew of 20 enlisted people.”

Fogarty was one of four officers in upstate New York at the Seawolf plant.

“One of the common names of another fellow is Jimmy Carter; he was the senior naval officer of the four of us. He was a class ahead of me at the Naval Academy.”

The future president was set to become Seawolf’s top engineering officer. But in July 1953 when his father died, Carter resigned from the Navy to take care of the family’s business. Fogarty recalls Carter’s mother also didn’t want to deal with his brother, who was “a little hard to handle.”

Another officer was assigned to replace Carter. The Fogartys traded Christmas cards with the Carters for a few years but lost connection before he got into politics. Meanwhile, Westinghouse already had built the Nautilus prototype plant outside of Idaho Falls, Fogarty said, and the Nautilus was a year ahead of the Seawolf.

“They had two land-based plants that mimicked a submarine, built in a submarine hull on land,” he said. “Both of them, one in New York and one in Idaho.”

A big advantage for submarines is staying submerged. They are most vulnerable when surfacing, Fogarty said. “Diesel submarines had to surface to recharge batteries, but with these, you could stay down forever.”

That gave the U.S. an advantage that held, he added. Fogarty spent time with the Seawolf as part of the crew taking it out for trial runs. They eventually found a problem with the different reactor design being “sodium-cooled,” versus water-cooled like the Nautilus, he said.

“Technically, the sodium potassium turned out to be corrosive material. When heated up, it ended up eating the pipes. We got an alarm that the pipes were leaking, which was down in a compartment with thick shielding above it. The medical doctor who was a nuclear-trained physician, he and I went down to see what was wrong; that’s where I got my highest dose of radiation.”

By then, Rickover had decided to remake the Seawolf with the Nautilus design, so it had to go back to port for a retrofit. Fogarty and another nuclear-trained officer from the Seawolf got transferred then to the Nautilus, which had been fully operational for over a year.

He was on the Nautilus in 1957 when it made its first unsuccessful attempt to cross the North Pole from the Atlantic side, seeking to pass the Arctic sea basin between Greenland and the Norwegian island Spitsbergen, but the sub’s periscope was damaged in an ice collision, and the gyrocompass became erratic, forcing the boat to turn back.

“We learned a few lessons about icebergs, how deep they go down, and when you bump into an iceberg, it’s not very mobile,” Fogarty added. “It’s stronger than you are, so it bent over the periscope.

“We had to wade our way out of there and back into the ocean without any idea where we were other than dead reckoning. We didn’t have any of our navigation stuff. We could tell how deep the water was, but not how high.”

After repairs, “they sent us through the (Panama) canal over the Pacific side,” but before the second North Pole attempt, Fogarty got assigned to the USS Skipjack, a smaller class of nuclear-powered submarines with a single big propeller and a more streamlined design.

“That hull incidentally was based on the prototype that was here in Idaho at the Navy test lab at Farragut,” he said.

He remained with the Skipjack for a while and earned promotions.

On the Nautilus, he was the fifth commanding officer for a crew with typically 11 officers and 105 enlisted members. Fogarty said memorable events occurred under his watch, but he doesn’t think he can share a lot. The Cold War against Russia was in full force.

“The most significant is probably still classified,” he said, smiling. “I’ve never been told I could release it, other than it involved being in water heavily foreign and against their submarines.

“We were still way ahead of the rest of our enemies. We were kept in patrol, and the Russians tried to stay in track of us, but we were able to know where they were and stay tracking distance with them wherever they went.

“But most of the time, we spent operating with the fleet, with surface ships, to teach the U.S. Navy what they were up against with the nuclear submarines, in simulated attacks.”

He also recalls the two nuclear submarines lost to accidents at sea, and he knew crew members killed on both the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. The Thresher sank in April 1963 during deep-diving tests east of Cape Cod, Mass., and an investigation found a ‘most likely’ cause was a piping system failure that allowed flooding of the engine room.

The source of the May 1968 tragedy on the Scorpion is uncertain, he said.

Early in his career, Fogarty served on two diesel-powered subs: Tiru and Queenfish. He also did a tour much later on the USS John Marshall. His final duty was in the Pentagon as operations officer in the Submarine Warfare Division. He earned a master’s degree in administration from George Washington University before retiring from the Navy in 1970.

After his Navy retirement, Fogarty returned west to the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls that stretched more than 22 years and took him to brief stints in Butte, Mont., and for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Raised in Great Falls, Mont., he married high school girlfriend Dorothy Reilly after graduation from the Naval Academy in 1948. They were together 67 years until her death in 2015. They have 10 children, 21 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Fogarty moved to Spokane in 2015 to be near family.

Fogarty has never been idle. In his retirement, he ran a 40-acre ranch in Idaho Falls and created pheasant habitat, raised cows and built a model train museum in a barn, inviting school groups. He later donated his train collection to the Cheyenne Depot Museum. He also liked to hike and do outdoors activities while being active in the Catholic community.

(c)2024 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)

Visit The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) at www.spokesman.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

previous coverage

• Traditions vs. politics: The long and undisciplined history of Navy ship-naming
• Nuclear power is a staple of American defense
• 92-year-old veteran tells tales of the USS Nautilus

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Lubyanka: Inside the Story of Moscow’s Infamous Building and District

Published: June 15, 2021

There is always history surrounding us. In a city like Moscow, this can seem overwhelmingly apparent. Moscow has many imposing buildings from many eras – some are immediately recognizable and others only invite wonder as to what stories lay behind their beauty or grime.

Lubyanka is the name commonly used to refer to the building that has historically housed the security services of the USSR and modern Russia, from the Cheka to the KGB to the FSB. The name has also, for a much longer history, been applied to the adjacent square and surounding neighborhood.

The Lubyanka Building

by Alyssa Rider

The building now known as Lubyanka was originally several buildings.

The two largest were originally designed by Alexander Ivanov and were separated by a street. The largest of these two was built in 1898 and the smaller in 1902 by the All-Russia Insurance Company. Insurance and banking were rapidly growing and profitable industries at that time. Insurance companies would often invest their substantial cash holdings in real estate. Thus, most of the buildings were built as residential and the space was rented for profit.

Perhaps ironically, the original, much more ornate façade of the main building included two female figures representing Justice and Solace.

The buildings were seized following the 1917 revolution and became the headquarters for the secret police – the Cheka at the time, though it has served in the same role for the various iterations of the Soviet, and now Russian, state security services – from the OGPU and NKVD, the KGB, and now the FSB.

Lubyanka prison was established in 1920 inside a two story structure adjacent to the main buildings. It had originally been a hotel built, again, by the All-Russia Insurance Company. It was soon expanded to six floors. Jokes referred to it as the “tallest building in Moscow,” as one could purportedly see Siberia (and the Gulag system) from its basement, as that was the fate that awaited most that saw the inside of the prison’s walls.

In 1940, Aleksey Shchusev was commissioned to enlarge the complex to accommodate the increasing amount of staff required to handle the Great Purge. The staff had grown from 2,500 in 1928 to nearly 34,000 in 1940.

An extra floor was added, and the main building expanded horizontally, consuming and incorporating nearby buildings. This expansion was interrupted by the Nazi invasion, leaving the facade lopsided until it was completed under the orders of Yuri Andropov in the 1980s.

The building now contains FSB headquarters, a group of holding cells, the headquarters of the Border Guard Service, and two museums: one devoted to the KGB/FSB and one dedicated to the old prison (neither is actually open to the public).

The Museums Inside the Lubyanka Building

The museums offer regularly updated exhibits, both historical and modern. The Museum of the KGB, now known as the Historical Demonstration Hall of the FSB of Russia, is located inside the Lubyanka complex, and contains four rooms and over two thousand exhibits.

Exhibits cover the history of Russian and Soviet counterintelligence, and there are documents from the times of both Peter and Catherine the Great, as well as the Napoleonic War and WWI. There are separate stands with information on events relating to mass repressions, as well as a room dedicated to WWII. The museum also includes a significant amount of technical equipment that has been used for reconnaissance and counterintelligence purposes, as well as more recent documents relating to FSB operations.

The prison museum has never been open to the public and is maintained only for FSB personnel and high-ranking government officials. The “Demonstration Hall” was opened to the public in 1989. Accessing it was still difficult, as it is located inside the FSB complex and tours were offered almost exclusively through private tour companies and only after screening potential visitors. In recent years, the tours became rarer and today this museum, too, is officially closed to outside visitors.

Lubyanka: Fountain, Statue, or Abstract Nothing?

The names were not the only thing that changed. In 1835, a fountain was installed on the square. This fountain was called Nikolsky Fountain (its name borrowed from the same gates mentioned above), and was designed by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Vitali and supplied potable water to the neighborhood.

Nikolsky Fountain is one of the oldest in Moscow, and it still stands, but no longer on Lubyanka. It was moved in the 1930s to a new location in the courtyard of Alexandrinsky Palace in Neskuchny Garden, part of the Gorky Park complex in central Moscow.

In 1958, a 15-ton iron statue of Dzerzhinsky, known as “Iron Felix” was installed in its former place on Lubyanka. This statue, in turn, was toppled in a public demonstration after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was transferred by the Russian Academy of Arts to the Muzeon, also known as Fallen Monument Park, to be joined by many other Soviet statues removed or toppled at that time.

In 2017, a general renovation of Lubyanka and the surrounding traffic patterns was announced by the city. It was debated if the fountain or even Iron Felix should be brought back. In the end, however, the space was enlarged and landscaped with flat, circular geometric shapes. The space, used and undecorated, remains largely unused.

In 2021, another effort to bring back the statue was proposed by the modern Communist Party in Moscow. The mayor initially agreed to allow the issue to be voted on in a referendum, but soon reversed his decision and killed the initiative.

The Solovetsky Stone

The Solovetsky Stone is a monument located across the street from Lubyanka Square in a separated area known as Musuem Park. It was created in commemoration of the political prisoners who were repressed under the GULAG system.

The Solovetsky Stone is a large granite block brought from the Solovetsky Islands, where the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp operated in the 1920s and 1930s as part of the GULAG system. It was officially opened on October 30, 1990.

Founding such a memorial had become a matter of public discussion a few years earlier, in the late 1980s. The Memorial Society, now a globally-respected NGO, began a petition with the goal of creating a monument of political repression in 1987, and in 1988, a Public Council for the creation of such a monument was formed. A contest was also held in 1988, wherein people could submit their monument ideas and suggest locations, but a winner for this contest was never chosen.

The specific stone idea came from a memorial created in the village of Solovetsky in 1989 by former Solovetsky prisoners, many of whom stayed there after their release, and members of the Memorial Society. Members of the Society from Arkhangelsk, St. Petersburg, and Moscow liked the idea so much that they acquired boulders to place in their own cities.

The opening of the Moscow memorial on served as a triumph not only in its own right, but also marked the first official recognition of the Day of Victims of Political Repression since that day began to be recognized by dissidents in 1974. Every year on this day, people now gather near the Solovetsky Stone to mourn. Since 2007, a practice called the ‘Return of Names’ has taken place on the 29th from 10 AM to 10 PM – people from across the city gather in a long line to take turns reading the names of Muscovites who were executed. Similar actions take place in many other cities and even other countries, on this day or the next.

The Solovetsky Stone has also become an unofficial site for civil protest, serving not only as a memorial but as a symbol for modern-day political dissonance.

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About the authors

Katheryn Weaver

Katheryn Weaver is a student of rhetoric and history at the University of Texas, Austin. Her primary areas of investigation include revolution and the rhetorical justification of violence against individuals, state, and society. She is currently studying Russian as a Second Language with SRAS's Home and Abroad Scholarship.

Program attended: Home and Abroad Scholar

View all posts by: Katheryn Weaver

Alyssa Rider

Alyssa Rider, at the time she wrote from this site, was a rising senior at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, majoring in Russian Studies and International/Global Studies with a minor in History. She planned to study abroad in Dublin, Ireland, in the fall, to study Russian, as well as a few other things. While she first became interested in Russia because of the language, she also developed an interest in LGBTQ rights in Russia. She also hoped to work as a translator.

Program attended: Online Interships

View all posts by: Alyssa Rider

Tha rate includes: double/twin occupancy, full board catering, excursions as per programme (including local guide services and entrance tickets), accommodation and catering for a guide-interpreter and a driver, transportation services - 4 days (1-2 pax - 1st class car with a/c, 3-9 pax - 1st class mini-van with a/c), services of guide interpreter.

Reservation Terms and Conditions

Retired captain of first U.S. nuclear submarine celebrates turning 100 in Spokane

Frank Fogarty knew nothing about nuclear physics on ships when he got pulled from his Korean War submarine duty to interview for a fledgling U.S. Navy program.

Fogarty, who just turned 100 years old in Spokane, has never forgotten meeting Hyman Rickover, known as the father of the world’s first atomic-powered submarines that began with the USS Nautilus in 1954. Its advantages meant speed and prolonged submersions.

He initially joined an officers’ team to develop Nautilus’ sister craft, the USS Seawolf, which launched in 1955. But by 1957, Fogarty had joined the Nautilus crew – first as an engineering officer, and then during 1963-67 as the Nautilus’ fifth commanding officer.

“I was in this position of being qualified for command, so Rickover picked from the younger submarine officers who were qualified, and he interviewed them all,” Fogarty said.

“He was the first to apply nuclear practically to something besides bombs. In my case, they flew me back from Korea to Washington for an interview with him, and it was an all-day deal. You interviewed with his staff; they all came up with their opinion of each interviewee.

“The last thing was you interviewed with the KOG – (what) Rickover was called for ‘Kindly old gentleman.’ He was not kindly; he was old,” Fogarty said.

Rickover was famous for his stress interviews, seeing if an officer entering the program could maintain composure and still think clearly if rattled. The program’s leader also drilled officers about any actions “that weren’t so great,” Fogarty said. “So it wasn’t the most pleasant thing.”

Fogarty thought that ended it.

“About three months later, we came back in from patrol and tied up to the pier in Japan with other submarines, and the captain of the submarine that was tied up where we came alongside of said, ‘I hear you have a Rickover guy on your boat.’ ”

He soon joined a Navy team working with General Electric to develop the Seawolf in Schenectady, New York. Simultaneously, he and other officers trained in reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College.

“We were sent there to be with the construction, to see it and then train in nuclear power, which we didn’t know what that was,” he said. “We also had a crew of 20 enlisted people.

Fogarty was one of four officers in upstate New York at the Seawolf plant.

“One of the common names of another fellow is Jimmy Carter; he was the senior naval officer of the four of us. He was a class ahead of me at the Naval Academy.”

The future president was set to become Seawolf’s top engineering officer. But in July 1953 when his father died, Carter resigned from the Navy to take care of the family’s business. Fogarty recalls Carter’s mother also didn’t want to deal with his brother, who was “a little hard to handle.”

Another officer was assigned to replace Carter. The Fogartys traded Christmas cards with the Carters for a few years but lost connection before he got into politics. Meanwhile, Westinghouse already had built the Nautilus prototype plant outside of Idaho Falls, Fogarty said, and the Nautilus was a year ahead of the Seawolf.

“They had two land-based plants that mimicked a submarine, built in a submarine hull on land,” he said. “Both of them, one in New York and one in Idaho.

A big advantage for submarines is staying submerged. They are most vulnerable when surfacing, Fogarty said. “Diesel submarines had to surface to recharge batteries, but with these, you could stay down forever.”

That gave the U.S. an advantage that held, he added. Fogarty spent time with the Seawolf as part of the crew taking it out for trial runs. They eventually found a problem with the different reactor design being “sodium-cooled,” versus water-cooled like the Nautilus, he said.

“Technically, the sodium potassium turned out to be corrosive material. When heated up, it ended up eating the pipes. We got an alarm that the pipes were leaking, which was down in a compartment with thick shielding above it. The medical doctor who was a nuclear-trained physician, he and I went down to see what was wrong; that’s where I got my highest dose of radiation.”

By then, Rickover had decided to remake the Seawolf with the Nautilus design, so it had to go back to port for a retrofit. Fogarty and another nuclear-trained officer from the Seawolf got transferred then to the Nautilus, which had been fully operational for over a year.

He was on the Nautilus in 1957 when it made its first unsuccessful attempt to cross the North Pole from the Atlantic side, seeking to pass the Arctic sea basin between Greenland and the Norwegian island Spitsbergen, but the sub’s periscope was damaged in an ice collision, and the gyrocompass became erratic, forcing the boat to turn back.

“We learned a few lessons about icebergs, how deep they go down, and when you bump into an iceberg, it’s not very mobile,” Fogarty added. “It’s stronger than you are, so it bent over the periscope.

“We had to wade our way out of there and back into the ocean without any idea where we were other than dead reckoning. We didn’t have any of our navigation stuff. We could tell how deep the water was, but not how high.”

After repairs, “they sent us through the (Panama) canal over the Pacific side,” but before the second North Pole attempt, Fogarty got assigned to the USS Skipjack, a smaller class of nuclear-powered submarines with a single big propeller and a more streamlined design.

“That hull incidentally was based on the prototype that was here in Idaho at the Navy test lab at Farragut,” he said.

He remained with the Skipjack for a while and earned promotions.

On the Nautilus, he was the fifth commanding officer for a crew with typically 11 officers and 105 enlisted members. Fogarty said memorable events occurred under his watch, but he doesn’t think he can share a lot. The Cold War against Russia was in full force.

“The most significant is probably still classified,” he said, smiling. “I’ve never been told I could release it, other than it involved being in water heavily foreign and against their submarines.

“We were still way ahead of the rest of our enemies. We were kept in patrol, and the Russians tried to stay in track of us, but we were able to know where they were and stay tracking distance with them wherever they went.

“But most of the time, we spent operating with the fleet, with surface ships, to teach the U.S. Navy what they were up against with the nuclear submarines, in simulated attacks.”

He also recalls the two nuclear submarines lost to accidents at sea, and he knew crew members killed on both the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. The Thresher sank in April 1963 during deep-diving tests east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and an investigation found a ‘most likely’ cause was a piping system failure that allowed flooding of the engine room.

The source of the May 1968 tragedy on the Scorpion is uncertain, he said.

Early in his career, Fogarty served on two diesel-powered subs: Tiru and Queenfish. He also did a tour much later on the USS John Marshall. His final duty was in the Pentagon as operations officer in the Submarine Warfare Division. He earned a master’s degree in administration from George Washington University before retiring from the Navy in 1970.

After his Navy retirement, Fogarty returned west to the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls that stretched more than 22 years and took him to brief stints in Butte, Montana, and for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Raised in Great Falls, Montana, he married high school girlfriend Dorothy Reilly after graduation from the Naval Academy in 1948. They were together 67 years until her death in 2015. They have 10 children, 21 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Fogarty moved to Spokane in 2015 to be near family.

Fogarty has never been idle. In his retirement, he ran a 40-acre ranch in Idaho Falls and created pheasant habitat, raised cows and built a model train museum in a barn, inviting school groups. He later donated his train collection to the Cheyenne Depot Museum. He also liked to hike and do outdoors activities while being active in the Catholic community.

Heart care for life

Feeling chilled to the bone while fishing in January is an endurable compromise for doing something you love.

History Of USS NAUTILUS

Construction of  nautilus  was made possible by the successful development of a nuclear propulsion plant by a group of scientists and engineers at the naval reactors branch of the atomic energy commission, under the leadership of captain hyman g. rickover, usn., in july of 1951, congress authorized construction of the world’s first nuclear powered submarine. on december 12th of that year, the navy department announced that she would be the sixth ship of the fleet to bear the name nautilus. her keel was laid by president harry s. truman at the electric boat shipyard in groton, connecticut on june 14, 1952., after nearly 18 months of construction, nautilus was launched on january 21, 1954 with first lady mamie eisenhower breaking the traditional bottle of champagne across nautilus’ bow as she slid down the ways into the thames river. eight months later, on september 30, 1954, nautilus became the first commissioned nuclear powered ship in the united states navy., on the morning of january 17, 1955, at 11 am est, nautilus’ first commanding officer, commander eugene p. wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, “underway on nuclear power.” over the next several years, nautilus shattered all submerged speed and distance records., cdr anderson on july 23, 1958, nautilus departed pearl harbor, hawaii under top secret orders to conduct “operation sunshine”, the first crossing of the north pole by a ship. at 11:15 pm on august 3, 1958, nautilus’ second commanding officer, commander william r. anderson, announced to his crew, “for the world, our country, and the navy – the north pole.” with 116 men aboard, nautilus had accomplished the “impossible”, reaching the geographic north pole – 90 degrees north., in may 1959, nautilus entered portsmouth naval shipyard, kittery, maine for her first complete overhaul – the first of any nuclear powered ship – and the replacement of her second fuel core. upon completion of her overhaul in august 1960, nautilus departed for a period of refresher training, then deployed to the mediterranean sea to become the first nuclear powered submarine assigned to the u.s. sixth fleet., over the next six years, nautilus participated in several fleet exercises while steaming over 200,000 miles. in the spring of 1966, she again entered the record books when she logged her 300,000th mile underway. during the following 12 years, nautilus was involved in a variety of developmental testing programs while continuing to serve alongside many of the more modern nuclear powered submarines she had preceded., in the spring of 1979, nautilus set out from groton, connecticut on her final voyage. she reached mare island naval shipyard, vallejo, california on may 26, 1979 – her last day underway. she was decommissioned on march 3, 1980 after a career spanning 25 years and over half a million miles steamed., in recognition of her pioneering role in the practical use of nuclear power, nautilus was designated a national historic landmark by the secretary of the interior on may 20, 1982. following an extensive historic ship conversion at mare island naval shipyard, nautilus was towed to groton, connecticut arriving on july 6, 1985., on april 11, 1986, eighty-six years to the day after the birth of the submarine force, historic ship nautilus, joined by the submarine force museum, opened to the public as the first and finest exhibit of its kind in the world, providing an exciting, visible link between yesterday’s submarine force and the submarine force of tomorrow., commanding officers uss nautilus (ssn 571), cdr eugene p. wilkinson | sept. 1954 – june 1957, cdr william r. anderson | june 1957 – june 1959, cdr lando w. zech, jr. | june 1959 – april 1962, cdr jeffery c. metzel, jr. | april 1962 – oct. 1963, cdr francis c. fogarty | oct. 1963 – april 1967, cdr norman e. griggs | april 1967 – january 1970, cdr david w. cockfield | january 1970 – june 1972, cdr alex anckonie, iii | june 1972 – dec. 1976, cdr richard a. riddell | dec. 1976 – march 1980, officers-in-charge historic ship nautilus (ssn 571).

CDR John S. Almon | April 1985 – July 1985 (In Tow)

LCDR John M. Crochet | July 1985 – July 1987

LCDR Dale R. Immel | July 1987 – July 1989

LCDR Allan A. Adell | July 1989 – July 1991

LCDR Mark S. Ginda | July 1991 – Nov. 1993

LCDR Darrell W. Tworzyanski | Nov. 1993 – Oct. 1995

CDR Terence Henn | Oct. 1995 – May 1998

LCDR Bennett J. Siclare | May 1998 – May 2000

LCDR D. Benton Howard | May 2000 – May 2003

LCDR Frank M. Sides | May 2003 – Oct. 2004

LCDR Christopher W. Slawson | Oct. 2004 – March 2006

CDR Randolph J. Tupas | March 2006 – Feb. 2008

CDR Gregory R. Caskey | Feb 2008 – April 2011

LCDR Robert Sawyer | April 2011- May 2013

LCDR Benjamin Amdur | May 2013 – April 2016

LCDR Reginald N. Preston | April 2016 – April 2018

CDR Bradley M. Boyd | April 2018 – April 2021

LCDR Derek A. Sutton | April 2021 – July 2023

LCDR Bryan R. Chapman | Current

Current OIC Biography

Lcdr bryan r. chapman, usn officer-in-charge, historic ship nautilus (ssn 571) director, submarine force library and museum, a native of wadsworth, ohio, lcdr chapman enlisted in the us navy in november of 2003. following initial training as a nuclear machinst’s mate, he reported to uss annapolis, ssn-760, in groton, ct in august of 2006. he subsequently was accepted into the seaman-to-admiral 21 program and was commissioned as an officer after graduating from purdue university with a bachelor’s degree in physics in may of 2010., his junior officer tour was aboard uss mississippi, ssn-782, from august of 2011 to august of 2014. as a plank owner, he served as the reactor controls assistant, quality assurance officer, assistant weapons officer and assistant engineer while guiding the ship through a rigorous construction and modernization schedule prior to her transfer to the pacific fleet., following duty on missisippi, lcdr chapman completed a shore assignment as a shift engineer at the nuclear power training unit in charleston, sc from august of 2014 to october of 2017. while assigned here he completed a master’s degree in engineering management from old dominion university., his department head tour started in may of 2018 aboard uss san juan, ssn-751 where, as the ships navigator, he completed a surge deployment and various training and testing exercises prior to relieving as the ships engineer officer. he then took the ship into a floating dry-dock to complete 18 months of maintenance prior to returning her to operational duty. he completed his department head tour as the weapons officer aboard uss hartford, ssn-768 where he prepared the ship for an engineered overhaul at the electric boat shipyard in groton, ct., lcdr chapman completed his next shore tour at the naval submarine school in groton, ct where he served as the weapons officer from july, 2021 to june, 2023. there he was responsible for training and mentoring all future submarine department heads and ensuring training standards were being upheld across the submarine fleet., lcdr chapman relieved as officer in charge of historic ship nautilus, ssn-571 and director of the submarine force library and museum in july of 2023., lcdr chapman’s awards include the navy unit commendation medal, navy and marine corps commendation medal (4 awards), navy and marine corps achievement medal (3 awards) and various campaign and service awards. he resides in voluntown, ct with his wife, renee, and their seven children, antonio, gianna, luca, kaitlynn, thomas, emily, and jacob..

Things to Do in Lobnya, Russia - Lobnya Attractions

Things to do in lobnya.

• 5.0 of 5 bubbles
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• 3.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• Good for Kids
• Good for Big Groups
• Adventurous
• Budget-friendly
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Hidden Gems
• Good for Couples
• Honeymoon spot
• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, photos, and popularity.

1. Temple of the Divine Savior

2. Temple-Chapel of St. Matrona

3. Lobnya Park of Culture and Recreation

4. Chamber Stage, Lobnya Drama Theater

5. Hyperboloidal Water Tower

6. Lobnya Art Gallery

7. Palace of Sports Lobnya

8. Lake Kiovo Natural Monument of Federal Significance

9. Lobnya History Museum

10. Memorial Complex Zenitka

11. Monument Veteran 1943

12. Kukly i Lyudi Theater

13. Moscow Defensive Line 1941

14. Temple of Archangel Michael

15. Monument to the Children Prisoners of Fascism

16. Church of St. Philaret of Moscow

17. temple of the icon sporitelnitsa khlebov.

18. Mass Grave of Soldiers Zvonnitsa

19. povorot mall, 20. cyber arena storm.

21. Cultural Center Krasnaya Polyana

22. Chayka Culture Palace

23. Volshebnaya Solka

24. Float Studio SAMADHI

25. Patefon

• Temple of the Divine Savior
• Temple-Chapel of St. Matrona
• Palace of Sports Lobnya
• Lobnya Park of Culture and Recreation
• Lake Kiovo Natural Monument of Federal Significance