USS Nautilus
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Six ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Nautilus. A popular ship name in many languages for centuries, it derives from a Greek word meaning "sailor" or "ship".
A popular belief maintains that ships named Nautilus are named for the Nautilus, the fictional submarine in the 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne. Indeed, the novel may have influenced the decisions to christen various submarines with this centuries-old name, but Captain Nemo's was not the first Nautilus. Verne likely named his fictional ship after a common ship's name. What is likely is that fiction and fact influenced each other.
- The first Nautilus, was a schooner that served against the Tripolitan pirates and into the War of 1812.
- The second Nautilus was a schooner commissioned in 1847 that served in the Mexican-American War.
- The third Nautilus (SS-29), renamed H-2 in 1911, served in World War I.
- The fourth Nautilus (SP-559) was a Motor Patrol Boat commissioned in 1917 and assigned to patrol and escort duty during World War I (contemporaneously with the third Nautilus).
- The fifth Nautilus (SS-168) was one of the largest submarines of her era (1927–1945) built for the United States Navy, and served during World War II.
- The sixth Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world.
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See also
- The submarine USS O-12 (SS-73) was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1930 and converted for use by Sir Hubert Wilkins's Arctic Expedition of geophysical investigation. The expedition renamed the decommissioned submarine Nautilus.
- HMS Nautilus for ships of this name in the Royal Navy.
- The nautilus is a tropical cephalopod having a many-chambered, spiral shell with a pearly interior.
- Nautilus (disambiguation) for other meanings of "Nautilus".