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Career
Awarded:	5 October 1955
Laid down:	29 May 1956
Launched:	26 May 1958
Commissioned:	15 April 1959
Decommissioned:	19 April 1990
Fate:	submarine recycling
Stricken:	19 April 1990
General characteristics
Displacement:	3075 tons surfaced, 3513 tons submerged
Length:	76.8 m (252 ft)
Beam:	31 feet 7 inches
Draft:	29 feet 5 inches
Propulsion:	one S5W nuclear reactor, two Westinghouse steam turbines, one propeller 15,000 shp (11 MW)
Speed:	20+ knots (37+ km/h)
Complement:	93 officers and men
Armament:	six 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Motto:	Radix Nova Tridentis

USS Skipjack (SSN-585), the lead ship of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the fish; Skipjack tuna.

Her keel was laid down on 29 May 1956 by the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 26 May 1958 sponsored by Helen Mahon, wife of Representative George H. Mahon from the 19th District of Texas, and commissioned on 15 April 1959 with Commander W. W. Behrens, Jr., in command.

Contents 1 Advances in submarine design 2 After launch 3 1960s 4 1970s 5 Decommissioning in 1990 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

On the Skipjack, there were many design changes that were products of new scientific insight into submarine design. The submarine industry, now with nuclear power, had wanted to make a "true" submarine. This required designing a submarine that was in its element underwater, not solely a submarine that can theoretically remain submerged forever. The greatest alteration was in the adoption of the new tear-drop shape, pioneered first by the conventionally-powered Albacore (AGSS-569), and designed for optimum performance underwater. The new hull's only protrusions were the sail and diving planes. The twenty-three-foot sail, resembling a shark's dorsal fin, rose at a point midway in the hull to keep the ship stable. The diving planes, similar in function to the wings of an airplane, were moved from the hull to this new sail, with the periscopes and antenna masts. Thus, they could only be useful when the submarine is in its natural environment—like the control surfaces on an airplane. Also, a single propeller behind the rudder now propelled Skipjack, making it more maneuverable.

Other experiments in design also benefited Skipjack by allowing the vessel to be built with improved steel. Even the controls and the anchor were changed in the development of the new submarine. In the core, a "second generation" S5W reactor advance of the Nautilus (SSN-571) reactor was installed, allowing the ship to travel at full power for 90,000 to 100,000 miles (200,000 km). Nuclear power had already been discovered, but the reactor was such an advance on Nautilus’s reactor that it entirely changed its magnitude and capability. Furthermore, although the S5W reactor was thirty percent bigger than Nautilus’s reactor, the reactor compartment on Skipjack only occupied twenty feet of the ship's 252 feet (77 m) total length. (This reactor proved to be so efficient that the Navy began to mass-order them). Finally, the design of the core was such that there became new standards of accessibility.

Skipjack had such advanced underwater capabilities that its path could be compared to that of an airplane in the air. As earlier private inventors like John P. Holland had envisioned, the submarine was designed as having its natural environment underwater, and the submarine became capable of things never before seen.

The boat's motto was Radix Nova Tridentis, meaning "Root of the New Sea Power"; and correctly so, as every US attack submarine until 1997 (when the diving planes were moved back to the hull) turned out to follow the Skipjack's design.

After being launched May 26, 1958, Skipjack was soon dubbed the "world's fastest submarine," after setting the speed record on sea trials in March of that same year. It was designed to have a speed in excess of 20 knots, but its actual speed was a guarded secret. Skipjack's maneuver capabilities, furthermore, added a whole different dimension to ASW problems as she could reverse direction in the distance of her own length, and were referred to as "flying," as Skipjack and her sister ships climbed, dove, and banked like an airplane. The antisubmarine warfare (ASW) problems created by such maneuverability and high sustained speeds took several decades to resolve to parity.

She remained a significant and effective threat, even with second class sonar equipment and fire control systems (space limitations, she was short by the standards of later classes) through to the end of her distinguished career. This was still true after a quieter seven-bladed propeller given to her on the class A refit of '73–'76 quieted her considerably but also reduced her speed noticibly. Her trans-Atlantic underwater crossing record was set using the noisier older five-bladed 'speed prop' in an early return from forward deployment in the Mediterranean Sea.

Given her class's initial five-bladed "speed prop" and a command structure willing to forgo stealth (always the submarines long suit) for speed, she and her sisters compare favorably with the speed and maneuverability of the Soviet Union's Alpha and Akula submarine classes.

During her shakedown cruise in August 1959, she became the first nuclear ship to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar and operate in the Mediterranean Sea. Following post-shakedown availability at Groton, Connecticut, the nuclear submarine conducted type training and participated in an advanced Atlantic submarine exercise from May through July 1960, which earned the submarine a Navy Unit Commendation, and also a Battle Efficiency "E" award, an award it would receive three more times.

In late 1960, the Skipjack entered the mouth of a long ship channel leading to Murmansk, Russia, in the Arctic Ocean. In the journey, the ship passed so close to the Soviet port that the officers could look through a periscope and see the port only thirty or forty yards away. The encounter seemed too close for the US Navy. In fact, upon entering the canal, crewmen saw one officer turn off a tracing mechanism so that there would be no written record of the action. The remainder of the year was spent in a restricted yard availability and upkeep.

Skipjack commenced her 1961 operations by participating in two weeks of type training followed by anti-submarine warfare exercises through August, visiting Mayport, Florida, before returning to Groton.

In January 1962, Skipjack operated out of Key West, Florida, for two weeks before entering the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine for extensive overhaul, lasting four and one-half months. Following her return to New London, Connecticut, the submarine operated locally prior to departing in October for duty in the Mediterranean Sea with the Sixth Fleet. During this tour, Skipjack participated in various fleet and NATO exercises and visited Toulon, France; and La Spezia and Naples, Italy, before returning to New London. In this year, the Skipjack also conducted the fastest submerged transit of the Atlantic Ocean on record, which is a record that still stands.

The year 1963 was occupied in submarine attack operations and ASW exercises, all designed to test the capabilities of the nuclear-powered attack submarine. The highlight of 1964 was two months of duty with NATO forces, participating in exercises "Masterstroke" and "Teamwork" and visiting Le Havre, France, and the Isle of Portland, England, before returning to New London in October.

After devoting most of 1965 to training exercises, the submarine ended the year by entering the Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina for an overhaul that lasted until 18 October 1966. Skipjack then got underway for sea trials off Charleston, before joining Shark (SSN-591) for four days of type training in the Jacksonville, Florida, area. She then sailed to her new home port, Norfolk, Virginia, before participating in Atlantic Fleet exercises.

Early in February 1967, Skipjack got underway for sonar and weapon tests and then participated in Atlantic submarine exercises from March through June. July and August were spent in restricted availability at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company following which Skipjack took part in FIXWEX G-67, an exercise designed to evaluate fixed wing ASW aircraft against a submarine with Skipjack's characteristics. Following an extended deployment in October and November, the submarine returned to Norfolk to prepare for major operations of that year which she completed on 25 February 1968. The remainder of 1968 was spent in local operations in the Norfolk area.

On 9 April 1969, Skipjack commenced an overhaul in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard which was completed in the fall of 1970. After sea trials in December 1970, Skipjack returned to her regular duties.

Highlights of 1971 were sound trials and weapons system tests at the Atlantic Fleet Range, Puerto Rico, from 25 January through 5 March and NATO exercise "Royal Night" from 15 September to 9 October. On 22 October, Skipjack returned to Norfolk, where she remained through January 1972.

Skipjack spent most of 1972 in tests and type training out of New London and Norfolk and in the Caribbean Sea. The submarine returned to Norfolk late in the year.

Skipjack was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 April 1990. ex-Skipjack entered the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program in Bremerton, Washington, on 17 March 1996 and on 1 September 1998 ceased to exist.

See USS Skipjack for other ships of the same name.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. and Blind Man's Bluff

• history.navy.mil: USS Skipjack
• navsource.org: USS Skipjack
• hazegray.org: USS Skipjack

• USS Skipjack nuclear sub sea trials, a Universal Newsreel excerpt, from the Internet Archive

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