USS Triton (SSRN-586): Difference between revisions
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Her keel was laid down on [[29 May]] [[1956]] in [[Groton, Connecticut]], by the [[Electric Boat]] Division of the [[General Dynamics]] Corporation. She was [[ship naming and launching|launched]] on [[19 August]] [[1958]] sponsored by Mrs. John Will, and [[ship commissioning|commissioned]] on [[10 November]] [[1959]] with Captain [[Edward L. Beach]] in command. |
Her keel was laid down on [[29 May]] [[1956]] in [[Groton, Connecticut]], by the [[Electric Boat]] Division of the [[General Dynamics]] Corporation. She was [[ship naming and launching|launched]] on [[19 August]] [[1958]] sponsored by Mrs. John Will, and [[ship commissioning|commissioned]] on [[10 November]] [[1959]] with Captain [[Edward L. Beach]] in command. |
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''Triton'' was designed in the mid-[[1950s]] as a radar picket submarine able to operate at high speed, on the surface, ahead of a task force, providing intelligence information, electronic surveillance, and to control fighter aircraft interception. ''Triton'' would then submerge to avoid attack and operate as a fully operational submarine. To achieve this high speed, ''Triton'' was designed with two reactor propulsion plants (the only United States nuclear submarine ever to have been thus built), a knife-like bow, and a high reserve buoyancy. She was the last submarine to have a [[conning tower]] (a water-tight compartment built into the sail). She was also the last American submarine to have twin screws or a stern torpedo room. |
''Triton'' was designed in the mid-[[1950s]] as a radar picket submarine able to operate at high speed, on the surface, ahead of a task force, providing intelligence information, electronic surveillance, and to control fighter aircraft interception. ''Triton'' would then submerge to avoid attack and operate as a fully operational submarine. To achieve this high speed, ''Triton'' was designed with two reactor propulsion plants (the only United States nuclear submarine ever to have been thus built), a knife-like bow, and a high reserve buoyancy. She was the last submarine to have a [[conning tower]] (a water-tight compartment built into the sail). She was also the last American submarine to have twin screws or a stern torpedo room. According to a History Channel special on American submarines, the Triton was capable of 55 m.p.h. (This gives some reference as to the expected performance of more modern submarines such as the Los Angeles class which employ more advanced shapes and reactors capable of much higher output.) |
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Until the commissioning of the [[Ohio class submarine|''Ohio''-class ballistic missile submarines]], ''Triton'' was the longest submarine ever built by the Navy. Her length presented [[Electric Boat]] with many problems during her construction. She was so long that her bow obstructed the slipways railway facility used for transporting material around the yard, so the lower half of her bow was cut away and re-attached just days prior to her launch. Similarly, the last 50 feet (15 m) of her stern had to be built on an adjoining slipway and added before she was launched. Her sail was found to be too high to go under the scaffolding, so the top 12 feet (4 m) of the sail were cut away and re-attached later. |
Until the commissioning of the [[Ohio class submarine|''Ohio''-class ballistic missile submarines]], ''Triton'' was the longest submarine ever built by the Navy. Her length presented [[Electric Boat]] with many problems during her construction. She was so long that her bow obstructed the slipways railway facility used for transporting material around the yard, so the lower half of her bow was cut away and re-attached just days prior to her launch. Similarly, the last 50 feet (15 m) of her stern had to be built on an adjoining slipway and added before she was launched. Her sail was found to be too high to go under the scaffolding, so the top 12 feet (4 m) of the sail were cut away and re-attached later. |
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Revision as of 04:06, 2 October 2007
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USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586), a nuclear-powered radar picket submarine, was the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth which was accomplished during its shakedown cruise in early 1960.
Triton was the second submarine and the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Triton, a Greek demigod of the sea who was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.
Her keel was laid down on 29 May 1956 in Groton, Connecticut, by the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation. She was launched on 19 August 1958 sponsored by Mrs. John Will, and commissioned on 10 November 1959 with Captain Edward L. Beach in command.
Triton was designed in the mid-1950s as a radar picket submarine able to operate at high speed, on the surface, ahead of a task force, providing intelligence information, electronic surveillance, and to control fighter aircraft interception. Triton would then submerge to avoid attack and operate as a fully operational submarine. To achieve this high speed, Triton was designed with two reactor propulsion plants (the only United States nuclear submarine ever to have been thus built), a knife-like bow, and a high reserve buoyancy. She was the last submarine to have a conning tower (a water-tight compartment built into the sail). She was also the last American submarine to have twin screws or a stern torpedo room. According to a History Channel special on American submarines, the Triton was capable of 55 m.p.h. (This gives some reference as to the expected performance of more modern submarines such as the Los Angeles class which employ more advanced shapes and reactors capable of much higher output.)
Until the commissioning of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, Triton was the longest submarine ever built by the Navy. Her length presented Electric Boat with many problems during her construction. She was so long that her bow obstructed the slipways railway facility used for transporting material around the yard, so the lower half of her bow was cut away and re-attached just days prior to her launch. Similarly, the last 50 feet (15 m) of her stern had to be built on an adjoining slipway and added before she was launched. Her sail was found to be too high to go under the scaffolding, so the top 12 feet (4 m) of the sail were cut away and re-attached later.
AVE NOBILIS DUX, ITERUM FACTUM EST
Triton departed New London on 16 February 1960 for what was announced as her shakedown cruise. Her crew had been told to prepare for a longer than normal voyage, but not why or for how long. She reached St. Peter and Paul Rocks on 24 February, then turned south, her crew now informed that they would be sailing around the world without surfacing.
As Triton passed the east coast of South America, Chief Radarman John R. Poole, began suffering from a kidney stone. His symptoms, beginning on 1 March, were interrmittent, so the boat continued south. On 3 March, Triton raised the Falkland Islands on radar and prepared to conduct photoreconnaissance of Port Stanley, but before they could sight the islands, Poole's condition worsened so that Captain Beach ordered their course reversed and send a radio message describing the situation. Triton rendezvoused with the heavy cruiser USS Macon (CA-132) off Montevideo and transferred Poole. That broaching was the only time Triton would surface during the circumnavigation, and Poole was the only crew member who did not complete the voyage.
Returning south, Triton passed to the west of the Falklands, and rounded Cape Horn through Estrecho de le Maire on 7 March. Captain Beach allowed all members of his crew to view the Horn through the periscope, making five reverses of course to keep it in sight long enough.
Passing into the Pacific Ocean Triton next raised Easter Island, first by radar, then by periscope. She photographed the northeastern coast for some two and a half hours before spotting the statue Thor Heyerdahl had erected. Again all crewmen were invited to observe through the periscope.
On 23 March Triton crossed the International Date Line and lost 24 March from her calendar.
On 27 March she passed the point of closest approach to the location where the previous Triton was lost during World War II, and a memorial service was held to commemorate the occasion. A submerged naval gun salute were fired to honor the lost crew when three water-slugs were shot in quick succession from the forward torpedo tubes.
On the morning of 28 March Triton raised Guam and observed activity on shore. Petty Officer Edward Carbullido, who had been born on Guam but had not returned home for 14 years, was asked to identify his parent's house through the periscope while the boat remained submerged in Agat Bay.
On 31 March, Triton passed from the Philippine Sea through the Surigao Strait into the Mindanao Sea, then through the Bohol Strait into the Camotes Sea. On 1 April, she raised Mactan Island and shortly before noon sighted the monument commemorating the death of Ferdinand Magellan at that site, and was in turn sighted by the only unauthorized person to spot the submarine during her secret voyage — a young Filipino man in a small dugout canoe about 50 yards off Triton’s beam, later identified as nineteen-year-old Rufino Baring. That afternoon, Triton proceeded through Hilutangan Channel into the Sulu Sea. She proceeded over the next few days through the Sibutu Passage, across the Celebes Sea, through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea and thence to the Flores Sea and through Lombok Strait.
On 5 April Triton entered the Indian Ocean. The transition was dramatically sharp as the change in salinity and density of the seawater caused a depth excursion: Triton abruptly dove from periscope depth to 125 feet in about 40 seconds. While crossing the Indian Ocean, Triton conducted an experiment: beginning on 10 April, rather than refreshing the air in the boat by snorkeling each night, she remained sealed, using compressed air to make up for consumed oxygen, and in addition on 15 April, the smoking lamp was extinguished — no tobacco smoking was permitted anywhere aboard.
On Easter Sunday, 17 April, Triton rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the South Atlantic Ocean. The smoking lamp was relighted on 18 April, the three days of prohibition having taken a noticeable toll on the crew's morale. Rather than passing the word in a tradition manner, Captain Beach demonstrated the lifting of the ban by walking though the boat smoking a cigar, blowing smoke in people's faces, and asking them "don't you wish you could do this?" He recorded in his log that "it took some 37 seconds for the word to get around." On 20 April, Triton crossed the Prime Meridian, and on 24 April, the sealed atmosphere experiment was terminated.
On 25 April, St. Peter and Paul Rocks were sighted and the circumnavigation completed. Triton then proceeded to Tenerife in the Canary Islands where she arrived on 30 April, thence setting course for Cadiz to complete another mission: the delivery of a plaque created on board the boat for this purpose. On 2 May, Triton rendezvoused with USS John W. Weeks (DD-701) and transferred to her a plaque that had been created during the voyage, a brass disk about 23 inches (58.5 cm) in diameter, bearing a sailing ship reminiscent of Ferdinand Magellan's carrack Victoria above the US submarine dolphin insignia with the years 1519 and 1960 between them, all within a laurel wreath. Outside the wreath is the motto AVE NOBILIS DUX, ITERUM FACTUM EST ("Hail Noble Captain, It Is Done Again"). Weeks delivered the plaque to the American ambassador John Davis Lodge to Spain who presented it to the Spanish government.
Triton returned to the United States, surfacing off the coast of Delaware on 10 May. She arrived back at Groton, Connecticut, on 10 May, having completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the earth. Triton received the Presidential Unit Citation and Captain Beach received the Legion of Merit from President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Triton Light at the United States Naval Academy commemorates her voyage.
Triton also received a Navy Unit Commendation.
The November 1960 issue of National Geographic Magazine (Vol. 118, No. 5) featured an article on Triton's circumnavigation by Captain Beach (“Triton Follows Magellan's Wake”).
Following her post-shakedown availability, Triton deployed to European waters with the Second Fleet to participate in NATO exercises against Brtish naval forces led by the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Hermes under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Madden. Triton climaxed the deployment with a port visit to Bremerhaven, West Germany, the first visit by a nuclear-powered ship to a European port.
For the first half of 1961, Triton conducted operational patrols and training exercises with the Atlantic Fleet. During this period, the rising threat posed by Soviet submarine forces increased the Navy's demands for nuclear-powered attack submarines with antisubmarine warfare (ASW) capability. Accordingly, upon the demise of the Navy's radar picket submarine program, Triton was redesignated to hull classification symbol SSN-586 on 1 March 1961 and entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in June 1962 for conversion to an attack submarine. Her crew complement was reduced from 172 men to 159. The Navy had no plans to use her radar picket capability, but she still carried her BPS-2 search radar and could have fulfilled this role. She was overhauled and refueling at Groton, Connecticut, from September 1962 to January 1964.
In March 1964, upon completion of this overhaul, Triton's home port was changed from New London, Connecticut, to Norfolk, Virginia. On 13 April 1964, Triton became the flagship for the Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet, and served in that role until relieved by submarine Ray (SSN-653) on 1 June 1967. Eleven days later, Triton was shifted to her original home port of New London.
Retirement
Because of cutbacks in defense spending, Triton's scheduled 1967 overhaul was cancelled, and the submarine — along with 60 other vessels — was scheduled for inactivation. From October 1968 through May 1969, the submarine underwent preservation and inactivation processes and was decommissioned on 3 May 1969. On 6 May, Triton departed New London under tow and proceeded to Norfolk where she was placed in the inactive fleet. She remained berthed at Norfolk into at least 1991.
On 30 April 1986, ex-Triton was stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry and the hulk was berthed in the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA. to await her turn through the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. She is scheduled for a 15-year drydocked hull inspection in October 2007, after which it is expected that she will finally be recycled.47°33.25′N 122°38.46′W / 47.55417°N 122.64100°W
Interesting Facts: The USS Triton was the only Submarine fitted with a Presidential Suite. This suite was President Eisenhower's submerged equivilant to the present day Air Force One.
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- Beach, Edward L. (1962). Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton (first edition ed.). New York / Chicago / San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. LCC 62-18406.
AVE NOBLIS DUX ITERUM FACTUM EST
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help)
- USS Triton SSRN 586 First Submerged Circumnavigation 1960. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1960. {O - 550280}.
External links
- Unofficial USS Triton website
- Cold War Curiousities: U.S. Radar Picket Submarines - Article from Undersea Warfare Magazine
- Around the World Beneath the Sea: the USS Triton Retraces Magellan's Historic Circumnavigation of the Globe
- Global Security: USS Triton (SSRN-586)
- NavSource.org: USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586)
- Navysite.de: USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586)
- Operation Sandblast - American Submariner Magazine
- [1] Universal Newsreel footage of 1958 launching - narrated by Ed Herlihy
- [2] Universal Newsreel footage of 1960 circumnavgation - narrated by Ed Herlihy