Everything about Uss Grayback Ssg-574 totally explained
USS Grayback (SS/SSG/APSS/LPSS-574), the lead ship of
her class of
submarine, was the second ship of the
United States Navy to be named for the
grayback, a small
herring of great commercial importance in the
Great Lakes.
Grayback (SSG-574), underway, circa 1960. |
| Career |
|
Ordered:
|
10 March 1951 |
Laid down:
|
1 July 1954 |
Launched:
|
2 July 1957 |
Commissioned:
|
7 March 1958 |
Decommissioned:
|
16 June 1984 |
Fate:
|
sunk as a target near Subic Bay on 13 April 1986 |
Stricken:
|
16 January 1984 |
| General characteristics |
Displacement:
|
1740 tons light, 2768 tons full |
Length:
|
83.2 m (273 ft), later extended to 317 ft 7 in (97 m) |
Beam:
|
27 ft 2 in (8.3 m) |
Draft:
|
19 ft (5.8 m) |
Propulsion:
|
|
Speed:
|
14 knot (26 km/h) |
Range:
|
|
Complement:
|
87 officers and men |
Armament:
|
eight torpedo tubes, one Regulus launcher |
Motto:
|
De Profundis Futurus |
Her keel was laid down on
1 July 1954 by the
Mare Island Naval Shipyard of
Vallejo, California. She was
launched on
2 July 1957 sponsored by Mrs. John A. Moore, widow of the last skipper of the
first Grayback, and
commissioned at Mare Island on
7 March 1958 with Lieutenant Commander Hugh G. Nott in command.
Grayback was initially designated as an attack submarine, but was converted to a
Regulus guided missile submarine (SSG-574) in
1958.
The first of the Navy's guided missile submarines to carry the Regulus II sea-to surface missiles,
Grayback conducted tests and shakedown along the West Coast. While operating out of
Port Hueneme, California, in September
1958 she carried out the first successful launching of a
Regulus II missile from a submarine, which pointed the way to a revolutionary advance in the power of navies to attack land bases. Departing
San Diego, California, on
30 October,
Grayback arrived at
Pearl Harbor on
8 November for a month of exercises and maneuvers before returning to Mare Island for her "10,000 mile checkup."
On
9 February 1959,
Grayback departed Mare Island to make Pearl Harbor her permanent home base, reaching Hawaii
7 March via
Port Hueneme, California,
Long Beach, California, and
Mazatlan, Mexico. After a series of exercises there, she cruised to
Dutch Harbor,
Unmak Island,
Sequam Island, and
Kodiak, Alaska, for further missile exercises from
3 July to
31 July. This was followed by the first of her nine deterrent missile strike missions, from
21 September to
12 November.
Grayback's first patrol terminated at
Yokosuka, Japan, as did two others. She returned to
Pearl Harbor 8 December.
On
22 February 1960,
Grayback modified her missile launching system and simplified her complex electrical circuits. After this, she again took up deterrent missile strike missions. Over the next 2½ years she completed seven missions for a total of nearly 18 months at sea, much of this time submerged. In addition to
Yokosuka, both
Adak, Alaska, and
Pearl Harbor also served as termination points for these patrols. On her nine patrols she spent more than 20 months at sea and logged well over 130,000 miles (209,000 km) on deterrent missile strike missions.
That schedule took its toll. On
27 August 1963, while snorkeling to recharge batteries,
Grayback was buffeted by particularly strong seas. The buffeting caused the After Main Battery breaker to short, starting a fire in the berthing compartment. One seaman failed to evacuate the compartment and was overcome by smoke and fumes. Main propulsion was lost for a short time, but was restored, and
Grayback was able return to
Pearl Harbor under her own power. Repairs took two weeks.
As more and more
Polaris missile submarines became operational, they assumed the deterrent functions previously assigned to
Grayback and her sister ships. The
Regulus missile program ended in
1964 and
Grayback was withdrawn from active service. She decommissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard,
California, on
25 May 1964.
A second conversion began at the
Mare Island Naval Shipyard in November
1967. The conversion was originally estimated at US$15.2 million but grew to over US$30 million. She was re-classified from a guided missile submarine to an amphibious transport submarine with
hull classification symbol LPSS on
30 August 1968. (The
Naval Vessel Registry entry for
Grayback shows that at one point she was classified as a "plain" transport submarine, an APSS. Crew memoirs indicated that they were never aware of it. Presumably, while this classification was "official," it may have lasted only days.) The conversion heightened her sail by ten feet, added two auxiliary tanks to the forward end of the engine room (increasing the length of the boat by 12 feet), and, most significantly, converted the missile chambers to carry 67 embarked troops and SEAL
Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs), including a decompression chamber in the starboard hangar.
Grayback was decommissioned for the second time on
15 January 1984 at
Subic Bay Naval Station in the
Republic of the Philippines. After decommissioning,
Grayback was sunk as a target on
13 April 1986 in the South China Sea.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Uss Grayback Ssg-574'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://uss_grayback__ssg-574.totallyexplained.com">USS Grayback (SSG-574) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
