22. The mission was announced to the world on May 10, 1960
Triton finally surfaced near Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on May 10. Captain Beach was flown by helicopter to the White House, where President Eisenhower announced the circumnavigation with Beach and Admiral Hyman Rickover in attendance. Beach then returned to his ship and continued on to New London. Triton moored at the Naval Submarine Base on the Thames River on May 11. The entire cruise took 84 days, 83 of which the ship was submerged. In total, the ship covered over 36,000 nautical miles on its first voyage. It released 144 hydrographic bottles to chart ocean currents, mapped previously uncharted seamounts, reefs, and other hazards to submerged navigation, and recorded previously unobserved variations in the earth’s gravitational field.
Triton also successfully tested and evaluated the Ship’s Inertial Navigation System (SINS) which was essential to the success of the Polaris missile program. Its voyage also saw the first use of the Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio communications system, with the submarine floating a trailing buoy to receive transmissions. The psychological studies of the men during the long deployment led to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology informing NASA, “getting to the moon and back was simpler than guiding an antiballistic missile or circumnavigating the earth underwater in a nuclear submarine”. Official celebrations of Triton’s achievement were canceled before the submarine returned to its New London pier.