USS Skate (SSN-578) was the third submarine of the United States Navy named for the skate, a type of ray, was the lead ship of the Skate class of nuclear submarines. She was the third nuclear submarine commissioned, the first to make a completely submerged trans-Atlantic crossing, the second submarine to reach the North Pole, and the first to surface there.
Skate with an ice pack behind her
USS Skate in August 1958, possibly at Drifting Ice Station Alfa
USS Skate in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, March 1958
USS Skate surfaced in Arctic – 1959
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole, Terrestrial North Pole or 90th Parallel North, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole.
Temporary research station of German-Swiss expedition on the sea ice at the Geographic North Pole. Drillings at the landing site at 90°N showed an average ice thickness of 2.5 metres on April 16, 1990
This pressure ridge at the North Pole is about 1 km long, formed between two ice floes of multi-year ice.
Nansen's ship Fram in the Arctic ice
Peary's sledge party at what they claimed was the North Pole, 1909. From left: Ooqueah, Ootah, Henson, Egingwah, and Seeglo.