USS Queenfish (SSN-651)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Queenfish.

USS Queenfish (SSN-651) at the North Pole on 6 August 1970.
Career
Name:	USS Queenfish (SSN-651)
Namesake:	The queenfish
Ordered:	26 March 1963
Builder:	Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia
Laid down:	11 May 1964
Launched:	25 February 1966
Sponsored by:	The Honorable Julia Butler Hansen (1907-1988)
Commissioned:	6 December 1966
Decommissioned:	14 April 1992
Struck:	14 April 1992
Motto:	La Reine de la Mer (French for "Queen of the Sea")
Fate:	Scrapping via Ship and Submarine Recycling Program begun 1 May 1992, completed 7 April 1993
General characteristics
Class & type:	Sturgeon-class submarine
Displacement:	4,060 long tons (4,125 t) light
Length:	292 ft (89 m)
Beam:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Draft:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Installed power:	15,000 shaft horsepower (11.2 megawatts)
Propulsion:	One S5W nuclear reactor, two steam turbines, one screw
Speed:	Over 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Test depth:	1,300 feet (396 meters)
Complement:	105 (14 officers, 99 enlisted men
Armament:	4 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes • UUM-44A SUBROC missiles

USS Queenfish (SSN-651), a Sturgeon-class attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the queenfish, a small food fish found off the Pacific coast of North America.

Construction and commissioning

The contract to build Queenfish was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on 26 March 1963 and her keel was laid down there on 11 May 1964. She was launched on 25 February 1966, sponsored by the Honorable Julia Butler Hansen (1907–1988), U.S. Representative from Washington's 3rd Congressional District (1960–1974), and commissioned on 6 December 1966 with Commander Jackson B. Richard in command.

Service history

Queenfish was assigned Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as her home port.

In 1970, Queenfish operated below the polar ice pack in the Arctic, mapping the Arctic Ocean's surface for potential military purposes in the event of a war between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Decommissioning and disposal

Queenfish underway near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 1 June 1989.

Queenfish was decommissioned on 8 November 1991 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 14 April 1992. Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, began on 1 May 1992 and was completed on 7 April 1993.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
• NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive Queenfish (SSN-651)

Further reading

• "Unknown Waters" by Captain Alfred S. McLaren