Submarine Force Museum Home of Historic Ship Nautilus
Please Note: We will be closed Oct 29 - Nov 9 for Fall Maintanence.
The Museum & Nautilus
- About the Museum
- Use of Facilities
- About the USS Nautilus
- Virtual Tours
- Virtual Tours Home
- Museum - Front Walk
- Museum - Main Hall
- Museum - Main Exhibit Area
- Nautilus - Torpedo Room
- Nautilus - Wardroom
- Nautilus - Attack Center
- Nautilus - Control
- Nautilus - Crew Mess
- The Library
- FAQs

Historic Ship NAUTILUS Virtual Tour
The Attack Center

From the Wardroom, visitors enter the Attack Center. The Attack Center contains all the equipment necessary to operate the submarine as a warship. On the left side of the corridor, visitors will notice a black panel with a red diagram of the ship. This was called a "Line-of-Sight Diagram" which was used to help calculate the range and direction of a target for aiming a torpedo. To the right of the Line-of-Sight Diagram, is the "Firing Panel". This was used to select which torpedo tube was fired. On the lower right is the "Firing Key", used to launch the torpedo.
Across from the Firing Panel is the "Conn."; Located here are the ship's two periscopes. The periscopes served as the "eyes" of the ship, allowing the crew to see objects on the surface when the ship was submerged at periscope depth. The Officer of the Deck stood his watch here.
Behind the Conn, is the Navigation Center. From here the Quartermaster of the Watch would chart the ship's position
The NAUTILUS also had a Sonar Room where displays helped the crew detect contacts, avoid collision and follow objects.
The Electronic Surveillance Measures (ESM) space contained the equipment used to detect electronic transmissions generated by other vessels. Detecting these transmissions was helpful to ensure the ship remained undetected by radar and to detect the presence of enemy signals.
From the Attack Center, the tour will lead visitors to the Control Room.