USS Blueback (SS-581)
 The Blueback as a museum ship |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | June 29, 1956 |
| Keel laying | April 15, 1957 |
| Launch | May 16, 1959 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | October 15, 1959 |
| Decommissioning | October 1, 1990 |
| Whereabouts | Museum ship |
| 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 Blue Back (SS-581) was a submarine of the United States Navy and was one of the Barbel-class submarine to. She was in service from 1959 to 1990 and is now a museum ship.
history
SS-581 was commissioned in 1956 and laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding in 1957 . The submarine was launched in 1959 and named Blueback by Mrs. Kenmore M. McManes, wife of an admiral , after a form of rainbow trout that lives in Lake Crescent . In the same year the submarine was put into service.
After the test drives, the submarine was moved to the Pacific in June and stationed in San Diego. In the Mare Island Naval Shipyard , minor problems that occurred after the first voyages and the first test shots were resolved. In 1959 the boat made its first mission to the West Pacific, including a visit to the Blueback Yokosuka in Japan. After completing the voyage, she participated in a large-scale anti - submarine exercise under the supervision of then Chief of Naval Operations George Whelan Anderson, Jr. and together with the new aircraft carriers USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) and USS Topeka (CLG-8 ) , USS Henry B. Wilson (DDG-7) and USS Preble (DLG-15) . After further exercises, the Blueback went to the Mare Island NSY for its first overhaul in July 1962. There, among other things, the depth rudder was moved from the bow of the boat to the tower . After the overhaul, the boat was stationed in Pearl Harbor , Hawaii in early 1963 .
From there, Blueback moved to Australia, Subic Bay and Japan in April . In 1964 the ship had to go into dry dock after an overturning crane damaged the hull; later in the year she drove twice to the region around Wake , first as a target ship for the UUM-44 Subroc , then as a target ship for the evaluation of the Thresher- Class to serve. In 1965 the Blueback was relocated to the Far East, where it was first involved in operations to support the Vietnam War fleet. Towards the end of the year an overhaul followed in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard , which lasted until September 1966. Another trip followed in 1967 to support the Vietnam War. The boat was not in Vietnamese waters. 1968 was the blueback to unspecified special operations in the Far East. In 1969/1970 the ship was again in the Puget Sound NSY.
Another war mission followed in April 1970, after which the ship was moored for maintenance in the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard . Also in 1971 the Blueback was in Vietnamese waters. From March 1972 she was for one year to be overhauled in the Pearl Harbor NSY, only in mid-1973 she moved back to the Far East. In 1975 the submarine first took part in the RIMPAC maneuver , followed by another overhaul in the Pearl Harbor NSY in 1976. In 1977 she was reinstated by RIMPAC and then moved back to San Diego. From there the boat took part in the UNITAS maneuver . In 1978 the Blueback moved to the Western Pacific for the eighth time, where it took part in multinational exercises. Another such trip followed in 1980.
After ten more years in the service of the US Navy, the Blueback was decommissioned on October 1, 1990. This made it the last conventionally powered submarine in the US Navy. Shortly before that, some scenes from the film Hunt for Red October on the Boat had been shot, but these were not used in the film. It was in the reserve fleet in Bremerton until the beginning of 1994 and was then donated to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland . There the Blueback lies today on the banks of the Willamette River and can be viewed as a museum ship .
Web links
- History of USS Blue Back (SS-581) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)