Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton

The author Captain Edward Beach (also famous WW2 submarine captain and author of Run Silent Run Deep) was the commanding officer of the USS Triton during Triton's shakedown cruise which was the 1st submerged voyage to circumnavigate earth. Operation Sandblast was the code name for the mission. The circumnavigation took place between February 24 and April 25, 1960, covering 26,723 nautical miles (49,491 km; 30,752 mi) over 60 days and 21 hours. The route began and ended at the St. Peter and Paul Rocks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the Equator. During the voyage, Triton crossed the equator four times while maintaining an average speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Triton's overall navigational track during Operation Sandblast generally followed that of the Spanish expedition that achieved the first circumnavigation of the world, started under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and completed by Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano from 1519 to 1522.

Participating in the expedition was Joseph Roberts - National Geographic photographer, Benjamin Weybrew a psychologist at the US Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory, Geophysicist Michael Smalet, civil engineer Gordon Wilkes, Eldon Good from Sperry Gyroscopic, Micholas Mabry from US Navy Hydrographic Office, and Frank McConnell from Electric Boat.

Captain Beach announced the true nature of their shakedown cruise:

"Men, I know you’ve all been waiting to learn what this cruise is about, and why we’re still headed southeast. Now, at last, I can tell you that we are going on the voyage which all submariners have dreamed of ever since they possessed the means of doing so. We have the ship and we have the crew. We’re going around the world, nonstop. And we’re going to do it entirely submerged."

Triton did not have a generator to extract oxygen from sea water, so nightly snorkeling activities were crucial to maintaining a suitable atmosphere.