The forgotten explorer who tried to reach the North Pole by submarine in 1931
In short: Before nuclear submarines conquered the Arctic, Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins attempted a daring, doomed voyage under the ice. This video explores his extraordinary life and the ambitious, failed mission that paved the way for future polar exploration.
Sir Hubert Wilkins was a man of immense ambition, born in 1888 in South Australia. After studying engineering and mastering photography, he began a life of global adventure that eventually led him to attempt a submarine voyage to the North Pole. His expedition, using a war-surplus vessel also named Nautilus, was a visionary but ultimately unsuccessful endeavor that occurred nearly three decades before the U.S.S. Nautilus successfully reached the Pole in 1958.
The 1958 mission, known as Project Sunshine, was a strategic move by the United States to demonstrate nuclear naval superiority following the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1. While the atomic-powered submarine succeeded in reaching the North Pole on August 3, 1958, it stood on the shoulders of Wilkins' earlier, failed attempt. Wilkins' life, spanning 70 years of exploration, remains a remarkable chapter in the history of human discovery.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Legendary Legends: The Greatest Adventurer and the Voyage of the Nautilus
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