ABSTRACT
The early years of the nuclear era had relatively little effect on the world's principal navies. More perceptive naval officers recognised that nuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion must eventually go to sea, but in the immediate post-war period it was still unclear how this might happen. Across the Atlantic in Great Britain the potential of nuclear power for submarine propulsion was also recognised, but by 1946 the Royal Navy had been dwarfed by its US counterpart and control of the sea had passed to its more powerful partner. The first Professor of Nuclear Science at Greenwich was considered by many to be an inspired choice. Jack Edwards began his career with the Royal Naval Scientific Service (RNSS) in 1943 working at the Torpedo Experimental Department, Greenock and the Admiralty Engineering Establishment, West Drayton, where early work centred on the use of hydrogen peroxide in torpedo propulsion.
