- USS George Washington (SSBN-598)
USS "George Washington" (SSBN-598), the
lead ship of her class ofballistic missile submarine s, was the third ship of theUnited States Navy to be named forGeorge Washington , firstPresident of the United States , and the first of that name to be purpose-built as a warship.Construction and launching
Her keel was laid down at
Electric Boat Division ofGeneral Dynamics ,Groton, Connecticut on1 November 1957 . The first boat of the her class, she was launched on9 June 1959 sponsored by Mrs. Robert B. Anderson, and commissioned on30 December 1959 with Commander James B. Osborn in command of the Blue crew and Commander John L. From, Jr. in command of the Gold crew."George Washington" was originally named USS "Scorpion" (SSN-589). During construction, she was lengthened by the insertion of a 130-foot-long missile section and renamed (another hull under construction at the time received both the older name and hull number and became the ill-fated USS "Scorpion"), but inside the forward escape hatch remained a plaque bearing the name USS "Scorpion". Because the missile compartment design of the "George Washington" would be reused in later ship classes, that section which was inserted into "George Washington" was designed with a deeper test depth rating than the rest of the boat.
Initial operations
The USS "George Washington" steamed from Groton
28 June 1960 forCape Canaveral, Florida , where she loaded twoPolaris missile s. Standing out into the Atlantic Missile Test Range with Rear AdmiralWilliam Raborn , head of the Polaris Submarine development program, on board as an observer, she successfully launched the first Polaris missile from a submerged submarine on20 July 1960 . At 1239 "George Washington"'s commanding officer sent PresidentDwight Eisenhower the message: POLARIS - FROM OUT OF THE DEEP TO TARGET. PERFECT. Less than 2 hours later a second missile from the submarine also struck the impact area 1,100 miles down range.The "George Washington" then embarked her Gold crew, and on
30 July 1960 she launched two more missiles while submerged. Shakedown for the Gold crew ended at Groton on30 August and the boat got underway from that port28 October for Naval Weapons Station Charleston, to load her full complement of 16 Polaris missiles. There she was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation, after which her Blue crew took over and embarked on her first deterrent patrol.The submarine completed her first patrol after 66 days of submerged running,
21 January 1961 , and put in at New London, Connecticut. The Gold crew took over and departed on her next patrol14 February . After the patrol, she enteredHoly Loch ,Scotland , on25 April 1961 . Four years after her initial departure from Groton she put in to refuel, having cruised some 100,000 miles.Collision with Japanese civilian ship
The USS "George Washington" was shifted to the Pacific Fleet and was home-ported at
Pearl Harbor ,Hawaii . On9 April 1981 , the submarine surfaced underneath the "Nissho Maru" in theEast China Sea about 110 miles south-southwest of Sasebo,Japan . The 2350-ton Japanese freighter Nisho-maru(日昇丸) sank in about 15 minutes. Two Japanese crewmen were lost; thirteen were rescued. The submarine suffered minor damage to her sail.The accident strained U.S. - Japanese relations a month before a meeting between
Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki andPresident of the United States Ronald Reagan .Japan criticized theUnited States for taking over 24 hours to notify Japanese authorities, and demanded to know what the boat was doing surfacing only about twenty miles outside Japan's territorial waters. Neither the submarine nor aP-3 Orion circling overhead made any attempt to rescue the Japanese crew.The US Navy initially stated that the USS "George Washington" executed a crash dive during the collision, and then immediately surfaced, but could not see the Japanese ship due to fog and rain. A preliminary report released a few days later stated that the crews had detected a ship nearby, but neither the submarine nor the aircraft realized that the ship was in distress.
On
11 April , President Reagan and other U.S. officials formally expressed regret over the accident, made offers of compensation, and reassured the Japanese there was no cause for worry about radioactive contamination. As is its standard policy, the U.S. Government refused to reveal what the submarine was doing close to Japan, or whether it was armed with nuclear missiles. (The standard response all modern American submariners are taught to give to such questions is "I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard this vessel.") The Navy accepted responsibility for the incident, and relieved and reprimanded the "George Washington"'s commanding officer and officer of the deck.On
31 August the Navy released its final report, concluding that the accident resulted from a set of coincidences, compounded by errors on the part of some members of the submarine crew.Decommissioning
In
1982 , the USS "George Washington" returned toPearl Harbor from her last missile patrol. In1983 her missiles were unloaded at Bangor, Washington, and then she left Pearl Harbor for the last time and transited thePanama Canal back to the Atlantic and to New London.The USS "George Washington" was decommissioned on
24 January 1985 , was struck from theNaval Vessel Registry on30 April 1986 , and was scheduled for disposal through theShip-Submarine Recycling Program atPuget Sound Naval Shipyard . Recycling of the ship was completed on30 September 1998 . Her sail was removed prior to disposal and now resides at the Submarine Force Library and Museum,New London, Connecticut . The "Georgefish" made 55 deterrent patrols in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in her 25-year career.References
This article includes information collected from the "
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships ".
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