William Anderson (naval officer) was distinguished. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and participated in a total of eleven combat submarine patrols. Anderson was selected by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover to be the second commanding officer of the first nuclear submarine to be placed into service, the USS "Nautilus" and was its commander from 1957 to 1959. Anderson and his crew received international notice when the "Nautilus" became the first submarine to sail successfully under the polar ice cap surrounding the North Pole. That transit was completed under direct orders of President Dwight Eisenhower, under extreme secrecy and was in direct response to
The Sea of Ice 1824 expeditions to the North Pole. The two titles originally referred to the present work and another older work by Friedrich, now missing. The lost painting was shown in 1822 at the Dresden Academy exhibition under the title "A Wrecked Ship off the Coast of Greenland in the Moonlight. Own Invention". The present painting was first shown in 1824 at the Prague Academy exhibition under the title "An Idealized Scene of an Arctic Sea, with a Wrecked Ship on the Heaped Masses of Ice". In Friedrich's estate this work was described as "Ice Picture. The Disaster-stricken North Pole Expedition". The