"Nautilus 90 North!" To the United States Navy these three words meant victory. For the first time in the history of naval exploration, a submarine—a nuclear-powered submarine—had reached the North Pole. To Steve Kranik and Ted Borden, young crewmen on the atomic submarine Nautilus, these three words meant: "We made it!"

To Ted and Steve, just being on a submarine was the most wonderful thing in the world. The two friends had long waited for the day when they could join the United States Navy—and now they were on the famous $100,000,000 Nautilus.

And the Nautilus was on her way, her identifying number painted over, her destination TOP SECRET—and all along her route, she was going to have to remain undetected.

But remaining unidentified was not her only problem, as Ted and Steve soon found out. With a thirty-foot thickness of ice crushing down from above and the sea floor pushing up from below, Commander Anderson had no alternative—the decision was: "Retreat!"

But retreat was not defeat—and within weeks the Nautilus was on her way again. Then the message flashed to Washington, D.C.—"Nautilus 90 North!" She had reached the North Pole, slid under it, and completed the first transpolar passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

From the book