USS Barbel (SS-580)
 Launch of the Barbel |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | August 24, 1955 |
| Keel laying | May 18, 1956 |
| Launch | July 19, 1958 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | 17th January 1959 |
| Decommissioning | 4th December 1989 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
2645 tons submerged |
| length |
66.9 m |
| width |
8.8 m |
| Draft |
8.5 m |
| crew |
approx. 10 officers, 70 men |
| drive |
Diesel-electric, 1 wave |
| speed |
about 20 knots |
| Armament |
6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes |
The USS Barbel (SS-580) was a submarine of the United States Navy and the lead ship of the Barbel-class submarine . It was in service from 1959 to 1989.
history
SS-580 was commissioned in 1955 and laid down at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1956 . In 1959 the submarine was launched and was named Barbel by Mrs. Bernard L. Austin, wife of an admiral , after the barbel . In the same year the submarine was put into service.
After the test drives, the Barbel was stationed in Naval Station Norfolk and docked again in the Portsmouth NSY in early 1961 to correct minor errors and to relocate the elevator to the tower . In addition, welds on pipelines were examined after water penetrated the boat during the first immersion tests and almost sank it.
At the end of 1961 the boat was relocated to San Diego, then further west to Pearl Harbor , Hawaii in 1962 . From there, the boat moved to the western Pacific for the first time. In 1964 the Barbel was overhauled in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . In 1965/1966 she moved a second time, for a short time to Vietnamese waters, where the Vietnam War had started. In the Gulf of Tonkin, the Barbel collided with a North Vietnamese freighter and sank it. Upon their return, the damage was repaired in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard .
At the end of 1966, the Barbel relocated again, but this time not in Vietnamese waters. In 1968 another overhaul followed in the Pearl Harbor NSY. In the summer of 1969 the boat moved back to the Far East, just as over the turn of the year 1970/1971, 1972 and 1974. In 1975 the Barbel was overhauled in the Mare Island Naval Shipyard , only at the end of 1976 did the boat leave the shipyard. In 1977 the next mission to the Western Pacific followed.
In 1989, three crew members of the Barbel were washed overboard when the submarine sailed to the surface off Japan, only one of the three could be saved. The submarine was decommissioned at the end of the year. In 2001 the Barbel was sunk as a target ship in an exercise off California.
Web links
- Barbel in DANFS (Engl.)
