- USS Swordfish (SSN-579)
USS "Swordfish" (SSN-579), a sclass|Skate|submarine, was the second submarine of the
United States Navy named for theswordfish , a large fish with a long, swordlike beak and a high dorsal fin.The contract to build her was awarded to the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard ofKittery, Maine on18 July 1955 , and her keel was laid down on25 January 1956 . She was launched on27 August 1957 sponsored by Mrs. Eugene C. Riders, and commissioned on15 September 1958 with Commander Shannon D. Cramer, Jr., in command.History
"Swordfish" completed fitting out and held her shakedown in the Atlantic. After post-shakedown availability and subsequent sea trials along the east coast, she was assigned a home port in
Pearl Harbor ,Territory of Hawaii , effective16 March 1959 . She steamed toHawaii in July and was the second nuclear-powered submarine to join the Pacific Fleet, joining USS|Sargo|SSN-583. Assigned to Submarine Squadron 1, "Swordfish" steamed over 35,000 miles during her first year in commission with over 80% of them submerged.In January 1960, "Swordfish" deployed to the western Pacific for four months and became the first nuclear submarine in that area. During this time,
President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-Shek was embarked for a one-day indoctrination cruise. She deployed to WestPac again on20 June and on this occasion took President of thePhilippines Carlos P. Garcia to sea for a one-day demonstration. The submarine conducted local operations in the Hawaiian area from January to May 1961. In late May, the submarine got underway for the west coast of theUnited States where she operated betweenSan Diego, California , andSan Francisco, California , with various Pacific Fleet units. "Swordfish" returned to Pearl Harbor on14 July and operated locally until September when she deployed to the western Pacific for two months."Swordfish" sailed to
Mare Island in January 1962 and became the first nuclear submarine to be overhauled on the Pacific coast. She returned to Hawaii on29 September for refresher training and local operations. On26 October , the submarine was again deployed to WestPac.In the autumn of 1963 "Swordfish" observed from close range a Soviet anti-submarine warfare exercise in the North Pacific. She was detected, but the Soviets were unable to force her to surface. The mission provided recordings of the Soviets' radio chatter and plots of their radar search patterns.
"Swordfish" continued operating from Pearl Harbor, on local operations and on deployments to the western Pacific, as a member of Submarine Division 71 until
30 June 1965 when she was assigned to SubDiv 11 which was also based there. In late 1965, "Swordfish" was awarded aNavy Unit Commendation for special operations from8 October to3 December 1963 , from22 September to25 November 1964 , and from20 May to23 July 1965 ."Swordfish" arrived at the
San Francisco Naval Shipyard on1 November 1965 to undergo a refueling andSubSafe overhaul which lasted until31 August 1967 . Sea trials were held in September and weapons trials in early October. She returned to Pearl Harbor on13 October and conducted refresher training until31 December 1967 . The period1 January to2 February 1968 was spent in preparation for overseas movement. "Swordfish" deployed to the western Pacific on3 February .On
8 March 1968 , "K-129", a Golf-II class submarine, sank northwest ofOahu . On17 March , "Swordfish" put intoYokosuka, Japan , for emergency repairs to a bent periscope. TheUnited States Navy states that "Swordfish" was damaged in an ice pack and that "K-129", with her nuclear missiles and crew of 98, was destroyed by an internal explosion, perhapshydrogen from its batteries, perhaps atorpedo , while some 2000 miles (3,000 km) distant from "Swordfish".In May 1968, anti-nuclear activists alleged that "Swordfish" had released radioactive coolant water into the harbor of
Sasebo, Japan where she was moored at the time. Some sources state that Japanese scientists discovered levels up to twenty times normal background, others, that they could not detect any increase in radioactivity. The Japanese protested the incident to the United States, and Japanese PremierEisaku Sate stated that U.S. nuclear ships would no longer be allowed to call at Japanese ports unless their safety could be guaranteed."Swordfish" returned to Pearl Harbor on
5 September and remained in port the remaining four months of the year."Swordfish" conducted local operations in the Hawaiian area from
1 January to11 May 1969 at which time she again deployed until4 November . The remainder of the year was spent in a leave and upkeep period. She was deployed on special operations from24 February to9 April 1970 and then entered drydock at Pearl Harbor for an availability period which lasted until30 September . The remainder of calendar year 1970 was spent conducting a period of crew training necessitated by the yard period.Local operations during 1971 were broken by a tour in WestPac from
24 March to22 September . During this deployment, the submarine visitedYokosuka ,Buckner Bay ,Pusan , andHong Kong . "Swordfish" continued local operations until26 June 1972 when she entered thePearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for her annual overhaul which lasted through31 December 1973 . Upon completion of the yard period, "Swordfish" resumed operations with her Pearl Harbor-based squadron.On June 22, 1977, "Swordfish" launched a
Mark 14 torpedo which made a circular run and hit the port screw. Fortunately, it was an exercise torpedo. "Swordfish" returned to port for 24 hours, did a screw change, and went back to sea."Swordfish" made a deployment to the western Pacific from October 1977 until March, 1978, stopping in
Yokosuka ,Pusan ,Chinhae ,Guam ,Philippines , andHong Kong .In July 1979 the "Swordfish" began a western Pacific deployment, stopping in
Yokosuka ,Pusan , and the territory ofGuam . After refitting inGuam the ship began operations again, but was forced to return to Guam after several days to repair the diesel engine after the muffler exhaust valve broke, flooding the engine. After repairs were made the deployment continued without incident until the ship's return to Pearl Harbor in December 1979.Local operations were carried out until the ship was deployed to the western Pacific during the summer of 1980. Upon returning to Pearl Harbor the ship resumed local operations until entering
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for overhaul and refueling in March 1981.:"Need info from the end of the 1981-1982 overhaul through decommissioning."
Final casualty
In late October 1985, "Swordfish" was delayed in departing
Pearl Harbor due to the failure of the drain pump. A replacement was obtained from USS|Skate|SSN-578, in the shipyard for decommissioning, but "Swordfish" put to sea before the pump was fully connected and tested, and the crew could not get the pump to operate. Since the engine room bilges could not be pumped, by the evening of23 October , the first day at sea, the water in the engine room lower level bilge was over the deck plates (more than four feet). The crew tried to use a portable submersible pump, but were not successful.When the water level got high enough to get up into the bottoms of the motors for the main lube oil pumps, causing grounds, the Captain came aft and saw the situation and decided to take the boat shallow to allow pumping bilges. When the planesmen put a slight up-angle on the boat to come shallow the water in the bilges instantly rushed aft, greatly increasing its effect on trim (this is known as "
free surface effect ", later classes of subs have flood control bulkheads in engineroom lower level to prevent this) and causing an up-angle of about 45 degrees.When "fire in engineroom lower level" was announced, due to water in the main lube oil pump motors, a man in the aft end of engineroom upper level opened the watertight door into the stern room, which swung into the stern room, to retrieve a fire extinguisher. Just then the up-angle increased dramatically and the bilge water began pouring in. The door was shut before the boat surfaced. With the boat on an even keel, the water came up to the deadlight in the door.
The maneuvering watchstanders began to take the immediate actions for loss of shaft lube oil; the throttleman began to shut the throttles for the main engines. Without propulsion, the extreme up-angle caused the ship to quickly stop and begin moving backwards, sinking stern first. When the fire was announced, the Engineer had gone to Maneuvering (the control center of the engine room). He saw the depth gage indicating a rapid increase in depth, ordered "Ahead Full" on his own initiative, and opened the starboard forward throttle himself in an effort to drive the ship to the surface. In Control, the Captain saw similar indications, and ordered "Blow Aft!". Before the
Chief of the Watch could initiate the blow on the aft group the up-angle became so steep that he was unable to maintain footing and slid to the rear of the Control compartment. He quickly climbed back up to the emergency blow "chicken switches" and opened a the after group valve."Swordfish" surfaced successfully. However, during the up-angle the freshwater drain collecting tank vents were submerged and sucked contaminated water into the feed system. The steam generator water could not be analyzed immediately because nucleonics laboratory in the stern room had been inundated by the wave of bilgewater. After a while, the leading ELT found the necessary reagents and analyzed samples from both steam generators on the top hat in reactor compartment upper level. By this time the boat was in direct communication with Naval Reactors, which ordered the reactor shut down and cooled down and steam generators drained and refilled. The emergency diesel generator, located in engineroom lower level, initially had water in the generator from the incident but it was drained and the diesel was online before the reactor was shut down. The reactor was cooled down and steam generators were blown down with service air and refilled until all fresh water on the boat was exhausted, which was a couple of hours before arriving back in Pearl Harbor; the cooks broke out cans of juice and distributed them around the boat. Subsequent analysis of steam generator water revealed no leakage of reactor coolant into the steam generators.
Three of the boat's four air conditioning compressors were shut down as part of the rig for reduced electrical. The temperature in the ship exceeded 80°F (27C) with near 100% humidity for the several hours required for a tug to be dispatched from
Pearl Harbor and tow "Swordfish" home. The tug, USS|Reclaimer|ARS-42 arrived the next morning and began the tow around noon, arriving back in Pearl Harbor just after midnight.The actions of the
Chief of the Watch and the Engineer saved "Swordfish" and her crew. The boat spent the rest of 1985 in port making repairs and returned to sea in January, 1986, making a successful deployment to the western Pacific later in 1986.Retirement
"Swordfish" was decommissioned and stricken from the
Naval Vessel Registry on2 June 1989 . Her disposal through theShip-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) was completed atPuget Sound Naval Shipyard on11 September 1995 ."Swordfish" earned the
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal , twoMeritorious Unit Commendation s, two Navy "E"s, eightNavy Unit Commendation s, fourVietnam Service Medal s, and a number of classified awards.Russia has repeatedly requested copies of "Swordfish"'s logs to trace her at the time "K-129" was lost, butThe Pentagon refuses to release them; "Swordfish" was involved in highly sensitive operations at that time. The United States has salvaged some parts of "K-129", and has provided the Russian government with a videotape of a burial-at-sea ceremony for six crew members whose remains were recovered when "Glomar Explorer " recovered parts of "K-129" in 1974.Trivia
*In August 1978 a diver accidentally left a paint scraper in a
torpedo launcher. The cost of the repair was $171,000. The cost of the paint scraper was $.71.References
External links
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s21/sword_fish-ii.htm history.navy.mil: USS "Swordfish"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08579.htm navsource.org: USS "Swordfish"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/submar/ssn579.htm hazegray.org: USS "Swordfish"]
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