Had the U.S. Navy stuffily forgotten a part of the heralded past of the great ships at sea? Last July, Commander Connelly D. Stevenson, 41, permitted a comely go-go dancer to do her uninhibited stuff—topless—aboard his Finback, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, which was docked at Port Canaveral, Fla. Some of the crew figured that the harmless little maneuver would spur morale, and Stevenson went along with the invitation. Indeed, after the ten-minute performance, enthusiastic crew members shouted, hooted and stamped their approval; and the dancer, Cat Futch, 23, got a thank-you buss from Stevenson.
Wind of the incident wafted back to his...