Captain Edward L. Beach announced the true nature of their shakedown cruise:
Men, I know you?ve all been waiting to learn what this cruise is about, and why we?re still headed southeast. Now, at last, I can tell you that we are going on the voyage which all submariners have dreamed of ever since they possessed the means of doing so. We have the ship and we have the crew. We?re going around the world, nonstop. And we?re going to do it entirely submerged.