Name That Sub!
The Military Life blog over at the Kitsap Sun (which has become a really good source for Bangor submarine news) posted a picture of an old decommissioned submarine at PSNS. A commenter identified it right away, but before you head over there to see the answer, have a guess for yourself:
Here's another picture of the same sub, from NavSource:
I remember the first time I saw this boat, in San Diego in 1993. I had just come back from a week of leave, and saw it sitting at Sierra Pier, totally rust-covered, and about 80' longer than an LA. I thought some weird Russian sub had defected. Turns out she was just being towed from Norfolk to PSNS for scrapping -- although they apparently haven't gotten around to it yet.If you got the answer right (without looking at one of the links), let me know in the comments.
posted by Bubblehead at 9:35 PM
18 Comments:
SS(R)N-586?
5/29/2006 11:36 PM
Ah, I was right! The Triton.
5/29/2006 11:39 PM
I knew right away it was the Triton. I still remember reading about her around the world cruise in National Geographic as a kid. No other US submarine has a sail that big.
Only sub ever built with 2 nuclear reactors right?
And I (was) an aviator........
5/30/2006 6:40 AM
Old. Must be named after a fish or the sea. WWII?
5/30/2006 11:00 AM
Ah, the power of sodium...
5/30/2006 11:17 AM
Without looking at comments, USS Triton. I know this for 2 reasons, fan of CAPT Beach, and the mention of the Norfolk bone yard. I remember going past it in the early 90s (anyone could take a private motorboat past the graveyard) and wondering why it wasn't razorblades already.
5/30/2006 11:59 PM
We had pulled in overnight to the opposite side of her pier in Groton. Her sail was about the length of a Greyhound bus. The tour was especially interesting.
Once considered for potential use as an alternative national emergency command post, she never got her 1967 overhaul due to spending for Nam. SSN-586 was decommissioned in May 1969 (the first nuclear submarine ever withdrawn from U.S. service). She was stricken from the NVR in 1986, a year before SSN 575.
Did not know the Triton hull was still around in 1993, but Seawolf did not complete the Navy's Ship-Submarine Recycling Program until 30 September 1997, so it cannot be unusual.
5/31/2006 12:10 AM
my shore duty was at ISMF, Portsmouth in 1977-1979. Triton was there as was the PWEFC (Prototype Waterborne Expended Fuel Container). Someone I was talking to told me they went aboard and took a valve for something, but failed to secure the line (blank flange or something, I guess) and Triton settled into the mud of the Elizabeth River. Obviously they got it out.
KP CWO4/EM1 (ret)
5/31/2006 4:01 PM
Wasn't that an S3G plant? No sodium there Craig.
Actually 2 plants.
And the sail was for a SPS-something (30? 37? 43?) or other surface search radar that retracted into the sail fore and aft aligned, obviously).
KP
5/31/2006 4:05 PM
KP,
Yeah, I was wrong about the sodium, that was Seawolf not Triton. I was a firecontrol technician so what the hell do I know about reactors?
5/31/2006 7:06 PM
The radar was a big air search AN/SPS-26. She was the *ultimate* SSR. Here is more info on the SSRs:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/NAVPALIB/CNO/N87/usw/issue_14/coldwar.html
sid
6/01/2006 7:05 AM
one more time ont he link:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/NAVPALIB/CNO/N87/usw/issue_14/coldwar.html
6/01/2006 7:06 AM
I figured it was the triton, I read alot about it after I got out of the Navy. Thought it was forever decommissioned in Norfolk. It was deommed before it's time.
6/01/2006 12:02 PM
I watch documental video about this Triton submarine, telling me there that in 1993 this submirine had acident and that in 30 seconds this ship appiears from Pasific to Indian ocean. Is that true? I can' find more info about this.
12/01/2007 8:40 AM
Very interesting. I thought I had read somewhere that the US Navy had a liquid sodium cooled power plant in the Seawolf once, but I never knew that Triton had it too....as in both of her plants?
Q: So am I wrong to assume that the plants in the Triton were breeder reactors?
12/25/2008 12:19 AM
Yes, the Triton... and I recognized it as well. The sail is now in north Richland, Washington at a still-under-construction memorial, so I think the scrapping is finally done at PSNS.
4/22/2011 4:29 PM
Steve H.,
Triton had pressureized water reactors. Seawolf was number 2 nuc boat and only one to have a liquid sodium reactor. The decision to abandon the liquid sodium reactor was made in early 1957. Seawolfs reactor was replaced by pressurized water reactor similar to Nautilus' at EB between December 58 and september 1960.
My commissioning skipper on SSBN 619B, (1963) CDR Al Whittle Jr was Seawolf skipper during reactor change out and sea trials and post shakedown. When he became precomm skipper 619B in 1962 he brought Seawolf Electrical Officer Lt. "Whitey" Mack with him as 619B engineer.
Keep a zero bubble.......
DBFTMC(SS)USNRET
4/22/2011 6:36 PM
It is the Triton- I recognized it because, when I was a nub, my boat was in the drydock next to her at PSNS. The skipper organized a tour, but I didn't make it because I was on a qual ride. By the time I got back, most of the ship was razor blades. Several organizations wanted to make a museum of her, but the nuke issues coupled with asbestos made it too expensive.
4/26/2011 7:54 PM
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