History of submarines few years before the US, and paralleled subsequent US development in this area. In the 1950s, nuclear power partially replaced diesel-electric propulsion. The sailing of the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USN ""Nautilus"" in 1955 was soon followed by similar British, French and Russian boats. Equipment was also developed to extract oxygen from sea water. These two innovations, together with inertial navigation systems, gave submarines the ability to remain submerged for weeks or months, and enabled previously impossible voyages such as the crossing of the North Pole beneath the Arctic ice cap by the USS "Nautilus" in 1958. Most of the
Old Pulteney Row To The Pole in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada for the biannual Polar Race, which he organises. Having just completed the race, he had taken a rowing machine out of the hotel onto the ice. A friend, seeing him, joked, "What are you going to do next Jock? Row to the Pole!" Jock Wishart publicly announced his intention and the expedition's sponsor, Scotch Whisky brand Old Pulteney, in April 2010. The attempt began on 28 July 2011. The crew departed from Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island heading across the Wellington Channel to the coast of Devon Island. In open waters they made swift progress to