Since Wilkins was not an American citizen, the submarine could not be leased directly to him. Shipping Board who in turn chartered her to Lake & Danenhower, Inc., of Bridgeport, Connecticut, to be reconditioned for special arctic service. Scheduled to be scrapped in accordance with the London Naval Treaty, the Secretary of the Navy turned her over to the U.S. Her short naval career came to an end on June 17, 1924, when she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The O-12 spent most of her career assigned to Submarine Division 1, based out of Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone. Ironically, given the fate of the mission, Wilkins had been offered the O-13, but turned it down, feeling that the ship's designation was a harbinger of bad luck. Her top speed was 14 knots surfaced, and 11 knots submerged. Built in 1916 at the Lake Torpedo Boat Co., in Bridgeport, Connecticut, she was 175 feet long, with a beam of 16 feet 7 inches, and a draft of 13 feet 11 inches. In the wake of the London Naval Treaty, however, the United States was willing to part with a pre-World War I O-class submarine, the O-12 (hull number SS-73). In the 1930s, most of the world's submarines were dedicated to naval service, and most navies were reluctant to part with the few ships they had. Wilkins's Nautilus was not a state of the art sunmarine, nor was she specially built for the expedition. Nautilus being towed into Portsmouth, England
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