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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Patches contributed by Mike Smolinski

Sargo (SSN-583)
Commissioning - Decommissioning

Radio Call Sign: November - Echo - India - Hotel

To Additional Pages

Keel Laying - Building
Launching - Shakedown

Skate Class Submarine: Laid down, 21 February 1956, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA.; Launched, 10 October 1957; Commissioned, USS Sargo (SSN-583), 1 October 1958; Decommissioned 26 Feb 1988 at Pearl Harbor, and struck from the Naval Register, 21 April 1988; Final Disposition, disposed of through NPSSRP (Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., 14 April 1994 to 5 April 1995.
Partial data submitted by Ron Reeves, HTC, USNR (ret.)

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 2,570 t., Submerged: 2,861 t.; Length 267' 8" ; Beam 25'; Draft 20'; Speed, Surfaced 23 kts, Submerged 18+ kts; Complement 8 Officers, 75 Enlisted; Armament, six 21" torpedo tubes, Propulsion, S3W pressurized water cooled reactor, steam turbines, two propellers, 13,200 shp.

Size	Image Description	Source
123k	Front and back pages of Sargo's (SSN-583) commissioning program, 1 October 1958.	US Navy photo courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
144k	Inside pages of Sargo's (SSN-583) commissioning program, 1 October 1958.	US Navy photo courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
60k	Picture shown the commissioning party on the Sargo (SSN-583) at Mare Island on 1 Oct 1958. (Left to right) RADM George L. Russell, USN, 12th Naval District - Commissioning Officer; VADM Maurice E. Curtis, USN, Commander Western Sea Frontier - Speaker; CDR Daniel P. Brooks, Commanding Officer *Sargo* Mrs. Frank T. Watkins - Sponsor; RADM Frank T. Watkins, USN, 13th Naval District; RADM E. E. Yeomans, USN, Commander Navy Post Graduate School; RADM E. W. Grenfell, USN, Commander, Submarine Force Pacific Fleet; Capt Leo G. May, USN, Acting Shipyard Commander; CDR H. W. Buckingham, USN, Chaplain; and LCDR A. F. Mendonsa, USN, Chaplain.	US Navy photo # NY9 41268-10-58, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
26k	Commemorative post mark hororing Sargo's (SSN-583) commissioning, 1 Oct 1958 at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
216k	Sargo (SSN-583) commissioning at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 1 Oct 1958.	US Navy photo # NY9 41279-10-59, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
98k	Sargo (SSN-583) around the time of her commissioning. In general form she resembles the diesel-electric Tang (SS-563) class submarine; nuclear submarines did not assume their modern fish like hull form until construction of the Skipjack (SSN-585) class. The narrow line extending along *Sargo's deck from bow to stern is a safety track installed as standard equipment on submarines after seven men were lost from Tusk* (SS-426) while rescuing the crew of Cochino (SS-345) in Arctic waters. When going on deck in heavy weather, crewmen attach a safety line to themselves and clip the other end into the safety track. They can then move freely and remain safe against mishap.	US Navy photo from DANFS, courtesy of Joe Radigan, MACM, USN Ret.
137k	Sargo (SSN-583) arrives at Mare Island on 3 April 1959.	US Navy photo # NY9 43844-4-59, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
164k	Sargo (SSN-583) departs Mare Island on 8 September 1959.	US Navy photo # NY9 45799-9-59, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
179k	Submarine Silhouettes of 1960: Nautilus (SSN-571), Seawolf (SSN-575), Skate (SSN-578), Skipjack (SS-585), Triton (SSRN-586), Halibut (SSGN-587), Thresher (SSN-593), Tullibee (SSN-597), George Washington (SSBN-598), & Ethan Allen (SSBN-608) classes.	U.S. Navy Photograph submitted by Ron Titus, courtesy of Ingersoll-Rand. Corp.
187k	Nuclear Submarine Profiles 1960: Nautilus (SSN-571), Seawolf (SSN-575), Triton (SSRN-586), Skate (SSN-578) & Skipjack (SS-585) classes, Halibut (SSGN-587) & Tullibee (SSN-597) classes, George Washington (SSBN-598) & Thresher (SSN-593) classes.	US Navy photo courtesy of Ron Titus courtesy of Ingersoll-Rand. Corp. Photo i.d. courtesy of Dave Johnston.
63k	Sargo (SSN-583) probably taken during her trip to the Arctic Circle, 1960. *Sargo* had reached the vicinity of St. Matthews Island where she found ice, block and brash and where, after rendezvousing with the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Staten Island (AGB-5), she made her first stationary dive while surrounded by ice. On the 29th of January, she passed the Diomedes and crossed the Arctic Circle; and, on 9 February, she arrived under the North Pole.	USN photo courtesy of Robert Hurst. Partial text courtesy of DANFS.
55k	Postal cover marking Sargo (SSN-583) surfacing at the North Pole on 9 Feb. 1960.	US Navy photo courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.
30k	Sargo (SSN-583), surfaced above the Arctic Circle, 1960.	US Navy photo courtesy of the US Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory.
33k	Collecting hydrographic data as she progressed, Sargo (SSN-583) reached ice island T-3 on the 17th of February 1960. Thence, after conducting tests in cooperation with scientists on the ice island, she got underway for the Bering Straits, the Aleutians, and Hawaii. On 3 March, *Sargo*, having covered over 11,000 miles, 6,003 under ice, returned to Pearl Harbor with new data on arctic ice, arctic waters, and the physiography of the Arctic Basin.	US Navy photo courtesy of the US Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory, text courtesy of DANFS.
97k	Sargo (SSN-583) off the coast of Hawaii, circa 1975.	US Navy photo courtesy of Wendell Royce McLaughlin Jr.
130k	Sargo (SSN-583) possibly off the coast of Hawaii, circa 1975.	USN photo courtesy of Bill Gonyo via parche683.net. Photo added 10/12/07.
40k	Official Decommissioning Invitation for the Sargo (SSN-583), held at Pier Sierra-One, Naval Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Friday 26 February 1988.	Courtesy of Robert M. Cieri.
25k	Sargo (SSN-583) commemorative decommissioning post mark, 1988.	Courtesy of Richard Leonhardt.
51k	Commemorative post mark honoring the nuclear submarines of the U.S. Navy on Sargo's (SSN-583) last day in commission, 26 February 1988.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
43k	Commemorative post mark on Sargo's (SSN-583) last day in commission, 26 February 1988.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
683k	An aerial view of a section of the Ship Intermediate Maintenance Facility at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 17 May 1993. One submarine tender and 16 decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines are shown including the Seawolf (SSN-575); six *George Washington, and Lafayette* class SSBN's (with their missile sections cut out) plus several *Skate, Skipjack, Permit* and *Sturgeon* class SSN's. All are awaiting scrapping. Bottom row, from left to right Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), Skipjack (SS-585), Snook (SSN-592), Henry Clay (SSBN-625), Lapon (SSN-661), Dace (SSN-607), Skate (SSN-578), Swordfish (SSN-579), Sargo (SSN-583) , Seadragon (SSN-584). Across the pier are Thomas Jefferson (SSBN-618), and not in view, Patrick Henry (SSBN-599), George Washington (SSBN-598),Barb (SSN-596) & Sea Devil (SSN-664).	Official U.S. Navy Photograph # DN-ST-95-01863, by Calvin Larsen, from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil. Photo i.d. courtesy of David Johnston (USN).
291k	"Sign of the times." March 1994 photo of Nuclear submarines at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard waiting in line for scrapping. Top row left to right are Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), Seawolf (SSN-575) Plunger (SSN-595), Shark (SSN-591), Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636), Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685) alongside Sperry (AS-12), with Triton (SSRN-586) across the pier from the *Sperry* . Bottom row, from left to right Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), Skipjack (SS-585), Snook (SSN-592), Henry Clay (SSBN-625), Lapon (SSN-661), Dace (SSN-607), Skate (SSN-578), Swordfish (SSN-579), Sargo (SSN-583) , Seadragon (SSN-584). Across the pier are Thomas Jefferson (SSBN-618), and not in view, Patrick Henry (SSBN-599), George Washington (SSBN-598),Barb (SSN-596) & Sea Devil (SSN-664). There are so many submarines at PSNSY that the yard is running out of pier space.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
569k	Sealed reactor compartments are shipped by barge out of Puget Sound Naval Base down the coast and along the Columbia River to the port of Benton. There the radioactively-contaminated hull sections are transferred to special multiwheeled high-load trailers for transport to the Hanford Reservation in Washington State. Pictured below is the burial ground for spent fuel of the following 77 nuclear reactor submarines as of March 2003: Patrick Henry (SSBN-599), Snook (SSN-592), George Washington (SSBN-598), Scamp (SSN-588), Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601), Thomas Jefferson (SSBN-618), Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600), Dace (SSN-607), John Adams (SSBN-620), Abraham Lincoln (SSBN-602), Barb (SSN-596), Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), Thomas A. Edison (SSBN-610), Pollack (SSN-603), Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685), James Monroe (SSBN-622), Skipjack (SS-585), Nathan Hale (SSBN-623), Plunger (SSN-595), Shark (SSN-591), Lafayette (SSBN-616), Sam Houston (SSBN-609), Jack (SSN-605), Haddo (SSN-604), Tinosa (SSN-606), Guardfish (SSN-612), Permit (SSN-594), Queenfish (SSN-651), Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631), John Marshall (SSBN-611), George C. Marshall (SSBN-654), Flasher (SSN-613), Guitarro (SSN-665), Alexander Hamilton (SSBN-617), George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), Tecumseh (SSBN-628), Halibut (SSGN-587), Will Rogers (SSBN-659), Henry L. Stimson (SSBN-655), Daniel Boone (SSBN-629), Greenling (SSN-614), John C. Calhoun (SSBN-630), Casimir Pulaski (SSBN-633), Skate (SSN-578), Sargo (SSN-583), Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657), Sturgeon (SSN-637), Benjamin Franklin (SSBN-640), Swordfish (SSN-579), Seadragon (SSN-584), Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634), Simon Bolivar (SSBN-641), Hammerhead (SSN-663), Mariano G. Vallejo (SSBN-658) , Tullibee (SSN-597), Lewis & Clark (SSBN-644), Pargo (SSN-650), Seahorse (SSN-669), Gurnard (SSN-662), Flying Fish (SSN-673), Gato (SSN-615), Puffer (SSN-652), Seawolf (SSN-575), Baton Rouge (SSN-689), Bergall (SSN-667), Whale (SSN-638), Henry Clay (SSBN-625), James Madison (SSBN-627), Finback (SSN-670), Spadefish (SSN-668), Sunfish (SSN-649), George Bancroft (SSBN-643), Grayling (SSN-646), Pintado (SSN-672), Tunny (SSN-682), Archerfish (SSN-678), & Woodrow Wilson (SSBN-624).	USN photo & partial text courtesy of home.flash.net/~tomj/tunny/chop/rx. & submitted by Jack Treutle.