page_title: Operation Sandblast
section_title: Media coverage
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Sandblast / Mission aftermath / Media coverage
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Triton (SSRN-586). First Submerged Circumnavigation *1960* (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office)
context_page_description: Operation Sandblast was the code name for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, executed by the United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton in 1960 under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach Jr.. The New York Times described Triton's submerged circumnavigation of the Earth as "a triumph of human prowess and engineering skill, a feat which the United States Navy can rank as one of its bright victories in man's ultimate conquest of the seas."
  The circumnavigation took place between February 24 and April 25, 1960, covering 26,723 nautical miles 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. Triton's overall navigational track during Operation Sandblast generally followed that of the first circumnavigation of the world led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan from 1519 to 1522.
  The initial impetus for Operation Sandblast was to increase American technological and scientific prestige before the May 1960 Paris Summit between President Dwight D.
context_section_description: Because of the public uproar over the U-2 Incident, which sparked a major Soviet-American diplomatic crisis that led to the collapse of the 1960 Paris Summit, most of the official celebrations for Triton's submerged circumnavigation were canceled. The voyage did receive extensive contemporary coverage by the news media, including feature magazine articles by Argosy, Life, Look, National Geographic, and the Saturday Evening Post as well as television and newsreels.
  Triton's commanding officer during Operation Sandblast, Captain Edward L. Beach, appeared on CBS news program Face the Nation on May 15, 1960 while several Triton crew members appeared on the What's My Line television game show.  Triton's submerged circumnavigation was the subject of the ABC television series Expedition! broadcast on Tuesday, February 14, 1961. Hosted by John D. Craig, this episode was titled Saga of the Triton, and it featured film footage from Operation Sandblast with voice-over narration extracted from Captain Beach's logbook.
  The American government published an 82-page redacted version of Triton's log (pictured) following the submerged circumnavigation. It was described by the New York Times as "a literary product in its own right [that] rivals in spots the suspense and drama of an adventure from the pages of Captain Hornblower."
  Captain Beach wrote the lead article ("Triton Follows Magellan's Wake") on the circumnavigation for the November 1960 issue of National Geographic Magazine, and he also wrote a book-length account, Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton, which was published in 1962.  Beach also made public presentations of the accomplishments of Operation Sandblast before the National Press Club (pictured), National Geographic Society on May 27, 1960, the American Philosophical Society on April 22, 1961, the Society of Non-Destructive Testing on May 8, 1965, and the Eagle-Scout Recognition Dinner in Chicago, Illinois, on November 4, 1965.
  Historian Bern Dibner wrote Victoria and the Triton, a 1964 book about famous maritime circumnavigations, featuring the Victoria, the Spanish carrack that was the first ship to circumnavigate the world under Ferdinand Magellan, as well as Triton's submerged circumnavigation of 1960. Also, Beril Becker wrote a 1961 juvenile-market non-fiction account of Operation Sandblast, Around the World Underwater: Captain Edward L. Beach, with illustrations by Richard Modock. Finally, the feat of successfully completing the first submerged circumnavigation of the world by the submarine Triton was recognized as a significant scientific and technological achievement for the year 1960 in Bernard Grun's authoritative historical reference, The Timestables of History.  Operation Sandblast is also examined within the overall context of global circumnavigations in Joyce E. Chaplin's 2012 history Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit.
  For the 50th anniversary of Operation Sandblast (see below), writer-historian Carl LaVO wrote "Incredible Voyage" for the June 2010 edition of Naval History magazine, and John Beach wrote "The First Submerged Circumnavigation" for the April 2010 issue of The Submarine Review, the official magazine of the Naval Submarine League. Mr. Beach is the nephew of Captain Edward L. Beach, the commanding officer of USS Triton during Operation Sandblast. Finally, the Naval Institute Press published Beneath the Waves by Dr. Edward F. Finch, a 2010 biography of the late Captain Beach, which includes extensive coverage of Operation Sandblast.  Finally, in a 1999 interview for All Hands magazine, Captain Edward L. Beach paid tribute to his crew and their ship by noting:
  I'm proud of Triton's around-the-world cruise, but I didn't really do that. That was done by my crew and the Navy – the ship the Navy built and put me in command of. That's not a personal achievement, although I was captain of the ship.
caption: First Submerged Circumnavigation *1960* (GPO)
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