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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Nathanael Greene (SSBN 636)

Lafayette Class Ballistic Missile Submarine: Laid down, 21 May 1962, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME; Launched, 12 May 1964; Commissioned, USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN 636), 19 December 1964; Decommissioned, 15 December 1986; Struck from the Naval Register, 31 January 1987; Disposed of through the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program, 20 October 2000 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 7,250 t., Submerged: 8,250 t.; Length 425' ; Beam 33'; Draft 32'; Speed, Surfaced/Submerged 20+ kts; Complement 120; Test depth 1,300'; Armament, 16 missile tubes, four 21" torpedo tubes; Propulsion, S5W Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor, two geared turbines at 15,000 shp, one propeller.

Size	Image Description	Source
43k	Greene was born in Potowomut, Rhode Island, on 27 July 1742. Self-educated, he assumed the management of his family's iron forge in 1770. Soon afterward, he was elected to the General Assembly. He helped organize a militia unit, the Kentish Guards. He joined General Washington's staff in 1776. Within two years, he became the army's Quartermaster General. Succeeding Horatio Gates at the head of the army's final southern campaign, Greene engineered successes at Cowpens and Guilford Court House. His strategy pushed the British out of the Carolinas and Georgia, thereby saving Charleston and Savannah. After the war, Greene faced financial ruin when an army contractor whom he had underwritten defaulted on payments to the American government. His battlefield acclaim, however, prompted the state of Georgia to reward him with a landed estate, Mulberry Grove, where he died on 19 June 1786.	Photo courtesy of National Park Service Museum & submitted by Bill Gonyo. Photo added 02/14/08.
458k	Commemorative postal cover on the occasion of the Nathanael Greene's (SSBN-636) launching at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, 12 May 1964.	From the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
255k	First of three photos of a launch tube test sequence on the Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, probably shortly between the time of her launching and commissioning, May - Dec. 1964.	From the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
224k	Launch tube test on the Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, probably shortly between the time of her launching and commissioning, May - Dec. 1964. The induced explosion is now rising over the deck of the boat.	From the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
199k	Launch tube test on the Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME, probably shortly between the time of her launching and commissioning, May - Dec. 1964. The induced explosion is now losing some of it's boom capacity as it dissipates over the deck of the boat.	From the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
231k	Starboard view of the Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) underway, probably off the coast of New England during her alpha trials, 1964 - 65.	USN photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
70k	Starboard view of the Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) underway, probably off the coast of New England during her alpha trials, 1964 - 65.	Official US Navy photo courtesy of Wendell Royce McLaughlin Jr.
145k	Starboard view of the Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) underway. The image shows some kind of test equipment on the sail, circa 1964 - 65.	USN photo from the collection of Edmund Cokely, CWO 2, USN Retired.
72k	A watercolor by the artist Edward Terhune Wilbur entitled "Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) Underway, 29 March 1965, for 21st Polaris shot ".	Painting #11 88-185-K. Courtesy of the USNHC.
16k	Commemorative postal cover marking the Nathanael Greene's (SSBN-636) first Gold Crew patrol, 1 December 1965.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
42k	A 1969 watercolor by the artist Edward Terhune Wilbur entitled "Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) Puts Out to Sea, 19 March 1969."	Painting #10 88-185-J. Courtesy of the USNHC.
61k	An elevated view of the nuclear-powered attack submarineBaltimore (SSN-704), and the nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarine Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636), foreground, moored at Pier No. 22 of the naval station at Norfolk, Virginia on 15 Dec 1986. The *Nathanael Greene* is being decommissioned.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph photo # DN-ST-87-03677 courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil & submitted by Bill Gonyo.
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.
48k	The Nathanael Greene's (SSBN-636) sail was acquired in 1991 by the submarine group NOTU (Naval Ordnance Test Unit) for placement at Cape Canaveral, Fl. This was accomplished under the direction of the then Commanding Officer, Capt. H. L. Sheffield, USN. The sail is located on the bank of the channel entrance to Port Canaveral, Fl. and in full view of the cruise ships passing in and out of the port. The "formal dedication" took place on June 4th 2003 in conjunction with the commemoration of "The Battle of Midway". In attendance was a "plankowner" of the *Nathanael Greene, MMCM(SS) Jim Allen, USN,RET of Gutherie, Oklahoma, who presented the CO of NOTU with a plaque that came from the Nathanael Greene* upon decommissioning.	Photo courtesy of natgreene.com., text courtesy of boomersailors.net.