23. Cold War politics muffled Triton’s achievement in official Washington
Triton’s epic voyage, which remains the fastest circumnavigation of the earth by sea at 60 days, was intended to boost Eisenhower’s and America’s prestige at the Paris Summit in May 1960. Before Triton returned to port Gary Powers’ U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union. The summit was canceled. Washington acknowledged the achievement, and the crew was officially commended, but celebrations were muted by the increased tension of the U-2 incident, and growing concerns over Cuba. Triton’s narrative was published, though portions were redacted by Navy censors, concerned that it revealed too much of the submarine’s spying capabilities at a time when diplomatic relations with the Soviets were at a new low.
The news media covered the voyage extensively, thrilled when the many photographs taken during the cruise were released to the press. National Geographic magazine published many of the photographs, for some Americans it was the first glimpse inside one of the new nuclear submarines. Look, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post (the latter written by Beach) all ran articles on the cruise, as did many newspapers, especially along the East Coast. Beach and several members of the crew appeared on television, where all but the Captain enhanced the reputation of the submarine service as being the “silent service”. Captain Beach also made many speaking engagements where he discussed the circumnavigation and the benefits derived from it by the US Navy and the scientific community.