<p><span class="deck">A rudderless derelict, she had drifted 1,100 miles through polar ice. Her return to England was a tribute to Anglo-American amity</span> </p>
<p>In the early 1950s, top-secret efforts led to the first submarine trips to the North Pole by USS <em>Nautilus</em> and USS <em>Skate</em> in 1957 – dramatic successes that rivaled the Soviet Union's Sputnik that year – and shifted the balance of strategic power.</p>