Wolf in the Water

For the launching last week of the Navy's second atomic submarine at Groton, Conn., 20,000 guests crowded into the Electric Boat shipyard and a Congressman's lady, Mrs. W. Sterling Cole of Bath, N.Y. cried, "I christen thee Seawolf.* Before she could swing the traditional champagne bottle, the sleek, 3,000-ton sub began sliding down the ways. To superstitious seamen, a botched christening means bad luck, but Elizabeth Cole made a last-second pitch, the twelve-ounce bottle of California champagne shattered, and bubbles splashed satisfactorily over the Seawolf's beflagged bow.

The Seawolf, 330 ft. overall with only a 27-ft. beam, will cost about $53 million complete; it is slightly leaner, longer and more expensive than the Nautilus, the world's first atomic-powered submarine (TIME, Jan. 11, 1954). The drastic differences are inside: to further nuclear development, the Navy deliberately chose two distinct, competitive types of atomic reactors to power steam turbines aboard the two vessels. Unlike the water-cooled thermal reactor on the Nautilus, the Seawolf's high-speed reactor will be cooled by liquid sodium, will create more heat and energy and burn more nuclear fuel.

Within six months the reactor and more than 1,000,000 other necessary items will be installed aboard the Seawolf. Then the green-and-black sub will be taken on sea trials by her 100-man crew, skippered by young (37), Virginia-born Commander Richard B. Laning, a veteran of both carrier and submarine warfare in the Pacific. Like the Nautilus, the Seawolf should be able to speed at more than 25 knots under water, and to cruise thou sands of miles without refueling.

The two submarines are only the be ginning of a whole new atomic Navy. At last week's launching, Navy Secretary Charles Thomas declared: "This fiscal year the Navy will have eight nuclear-powered submarines in being or under construction, and in rapid succession thereafter, many others . . . Nuclear propulsion for larger naval ships, e.g., carriers, is well advanced." Next, he predicted atomic aircraft, and particularly "nuclear-powered seaplanes." Without ceremony or speeches, early in the morning of the Seawolf's launching, the same shipyard began the assembly of a third, smaller, improved atomic sub marine.

*Third Seawolf in U.S. submarine history. The first was lost at sea in 1920. The second torpedoed 18-odd Japanese ships during World War II, but was lost off the Admiralty Islands in 1944--probably, according to a later inquiry, depth-charged in error by the U.S. destroyer Rowell.

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