Navy Electronics Laboratory events—the submerged voyage of USS "Nautilus" from the Pacific to the Atlantic, via the North Pole, in 1958, with NEL’s Dr. Waldo Lyon aboard as chief scientist and ice pilot. That same summer, the USS "Skate" cruised from the Atlantic to the North Pole and the central Arctic Ocean, surfacing 9 times through small holes in the ice cap. Dr. Eugene C. La Fond, head of NEL's Oceanography Branch, was chief scientist In March 1959, the "Skate" returned to the Arctic, under winter conditions, with Dr. Waldo Lyon as chief scientist, and for the first time, the nuclear submarine was
Old Pulteney Row To The Pole into the bay by storms. At this point the boat's unique design as a sledge-boat enabled them to haul the boat from the water and manually pull it across the ice on the final 2–3 miles to the Pole. This boat-hauling exercise took the crew 10 hours to complete. They arrived at the Pole position on 26 August 2011. Jock Wishart announced the success saying "There is now a row boat at the '96 Mag. North Pole". On BBC Radio 4's Today programme as "an incredible journey that will go down in the history books. It's a true global first