Rickover brought the first crew together while the NR-1 was under construction . He arranged training on all aspects of the ship's operation and maintenance, and demanded that each of us learn every seam, bolt, screw and system in the boat. Everyone had to be able to operate and fix everything. Of particular importance was our power plant, the world's smallest shipboard nuclear reactor. My crew mates and I were caught in a whirlwind of increasingly complex training, working in a wooden mock up of the sub and getting a feeling of just how small it was -- only twelve feet in diameter! And packed with equipment the like of which we had never seen before.