Operation Sandblast (nonfiction)
Operation Sandblast was the code name for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, executed by the United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) in 1960 under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach. The New York Times described Tritons submerged circumnavigation of the Earth as "a triumph of human prowess and engineering skill, a feat which the United States Navy can rank as one of its bright victories in man's ultimate conquest of the seas."
Triton departed New London on 16 February 1960 for what was announced as her shakedown cruise (pictured). Triton set course to the south-east (134 degrees true). At dawn on 17 February, Triton performed her first morning star-sighting using the built-in sextant in her No. 1 periscope during the nightly ventilation of the shipboard atmosphere. The inboard induction valve was closed after the removal of a rusted flashlight that had prevented its closure.
Captain Beach announced the true nature of their shakedown cruise:
Men, I know you’ve all been waiting to learn what this cruise is about, and why we’re still headed southeast. Now, at last, I can tell you that we are going on the voyage which all submariners have dreamed of ever since they possessed the means of doing so. We have the ship and we have the crew. We’re going around the world, nonstop. And we’re going to do it entirely submerged.
Triton returned to the United States, surfacing off the coast of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on 10 May 1960.
In the News
1960: Mathematician, art critic, and alleged time-traveler The Eel stops aquatic cryptid and alleged supervillain Neptune Slaughter from destroying the United States Navy submarine USS Triton.
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links
- Operation Sandblast @ Wikipedia