I think the best thing I can say about the articulated rudder on the Skate is that we never worried about it and, indeed, never thought about it until the arctic trips were scheduled.
The turning characteristics of the boat surfaced and, particularly, submerged were excellent. Like all nuclear-powered submarines, turning submerged at high speed created a banking effect that normally never caused any trouble.
When the arctic trips were scheduled, we gave a good bit of thought to the upper rudder and its vulnerability to damage from the ice. It was clear that a really serious impact with the ice could cause trouble. On the first trip in the summer of 1958, the polynyas (openings in the ice) were primarily open water but usually small in area. The ice surrounding the polynyas averaged about 10 feet in thickness and had the consistency of poor-grade concrete.
We did our best to come up in the polynyas in such a way that we did not catch the rudder under the surrounding ice. We were successful in each case, since, when we got the periscope up in open water, we could see whether or not the stern would clear the ice when we went all the way to the surface.
The winter voyage, in February and March of 1959, was a different story. All of the polynyas are frozen over in winter in ice depths that vary from a few inches to four or five feet. It was clear that there was no way to avoid impacting the ice with the upper rudder. The first thing we had to do was to get the sail up through the ice. It had been specially strengthened with HY-80 steel for the purpose, but no special steps had been taken with the upper rudder.
In the winter, we took even greater precautions to surface within the polynya itself so as not to impact the surrounding heavy pack ice with the rudder. We were given limiting speeds in feet-per-second for hitting the ice and always stayed within these limits. In the case of thin ice (eight inches or less) the submarine would go right on up with the rudder hitting the ice at the same speed with which we had broken the ice. With thicker ice (the heaviest we broke was three feet) the first task was to get the sail out and then when all looked clear, to push the submarine up the rest of the way much more slowly.
In no case did we ever notice any damage to the upper rudder, nor did post-patrol inspection reveal anything of note. Although it did cause us worry in the ice, the upper rudder design from every other point of view was a complete success.