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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Spadefish (SSN-668)

Sturgeon Class Attack Submarine: Laid down, 21 December 1966, at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, Co., Newport News, VA.; Launched, 15 May 1968; Commissioned, USS Spadefish (SSN-668), 14 August 1969; Decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the Naval Register, 11 April 1997; Final Disposition, entered the NPSSRP (Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., 1 October 1996, completed the program, 24 October 1997.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 3,640 t., Submerged: 4,640 t.; Length 292' 3"; Beam 31' 8"; Draft 28' 8"; Speed, Surfaced 15 kts, Submerged 25 kts; Depth limit 1,300'; Complement 108; Armament, four 21" torpedo tubes amidships aft of bow, MK 48 Torpedoes, UUM-44A SUBROC, UGM-84A/C Harpoon, MK 57 deep water mines, MK 60 CAPTOR mines; Combat Sensors, Radar, BPS-14/15 surface search, Sonars, BQQ-5 multi-function bow mounted, BQR-7 passive in submarines with BQQ-2, BQS-12 active 7, TB-16 or TB-23 towed array, EW Systems, WLQ-4(V), WLR-4(V), WLR-9 ; Propulsion System, one S5W nuclear reactor, two steam turbines, one propeller, 15,000 shp.

Size	Image Description	Contributed By
33k	Cut out of the Sturgeon (SSN-637) class.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
236k	Mrs. Charles T. Booth II gives the Spadefish (SSN-668) her first taste of champange at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, Co., Newport News, VA., 15 May 1968.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of S. Dale Hargrave. Photo added 11/30/07.
135k	Front cover of the the Spadefish's (SSN-668) Launching Program at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, Co., Newport News, VA., 15 May 1968.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of S. Dale Hargrave. Photo added 11/30/07.
81k	Spadefish (SSN-668), underway, during her trials off the Virginia coast, 1969.	USN photo courtesy of S.F. Gilman, Newport News Shipbuilding.
63k	Front cover of the the Spadefish's (SSN-668) Commissioning Program at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, Co., Newport News, VA., 14 August 1969.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of S. Dale Hargrave. Photo added 11/30/07.
43k	Oil on canvas painting by the artist Jim Christley entitled "Trailing". During the Cold War the US Naval Submarine Force was tasked with keeping tabs on Soviet Naval movements in particular, the Soviet Submarine Force. Submarines of the *Sturgeon Class* were well suited to this task and often trailed Soviet submarines for days reporting on their movements and recording noise signatures. In this image, such a trailing has turned into a close aboard encounter as a Soviet *Viktor III Class* has turned to port to check his baffles (to listen to see if anyone is immediately astern). A trailing *Sturgeon* has stopped his screw and gone quiet. Extending far behind the US submarine is its towed array sonar which assists in giving a clear picture of the ocean’s acoustics	Photo & text courtesy of subart.net.
70k	Spadefish (SSN-668), on right, docked at D&S piers Norfolk VA, 1975. Bluefish (SSN-675) is to the left of John Hummel, the contributor of this and so many other wonderful submarine photographs.	Photo courtesy of John Hummel.
399k	A *Sturgeon class* nuclear-powered attack submarine, possibly the Spadefish (SSN-668), and the torpedo retriever *TR-681* are tied up at pier area 6 at New London, CT., on 14 Jul 1991.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph # DN-ST-92-04179 by Don S. Montgomery, USN (RET.), from the Department of Defense Still Media Collection, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil & submitted by Bill Gonyo.
19k	Spadefish (SSN-668), underway, port side view. Date and location unknown.	Photo courtesy of John Hummel.
33k	Spadefish (SSN-668), underway, bow view. Date and location unknown.	Photo courtesy of globalsecurity.org.
70k	The following photos are from a series entitled "U.S. Fleet Submarine Navy--Sea Power". An officer mans the Spadefish's (SSN-668) periscope.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
66k	Spadefish's (SSN-668) Galley.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
78k	Fire Control Station.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
56k	Fire Control Station.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
75k	The navigational chart at the plotting table in the ship's control center.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
87k	Personnel are shown manning their post at the ship's control center.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
50k	Interior scene aboard the Spadefish (SSN-668).	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
61k	Interior scene aboard the Spadefish (SSN-668).	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
55k	The crew of the Spadefish (SSN-668) "drive" the boat.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
93k	The sail of the Spadefish (SSN-668) protrudes through the Artic ice during the later part of her career.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
145k	Submerged submarines in tandem.	U.S. Navy Photo courtesy of Robert Hall.
73k	Bergall (SSN-667) & Spadefish (SSN-668) inboard of the submarine tender LY Spear (AS-36) at D&S piers Norfolk VA. in 1994.	Photo courtesy of John Hummel.
86k	Painting of the Spadefish (SSN-668) docked in Resolute (AFDM-10) at Norfolk, Virginia. It appeared on the back cover of the Navy Magazine UNDERSEAWARFARE Spring 2004.	Acrylic painting by Navy Artist John Charles Roach of the Navy Art Gallery. Photo courtesy of Darryl Baker.
20k	Sunfish (SSN-649) top left, James Madison (SSBN-627) top right, Spadefish (SSN-668) bottom left, and Finback (SSN-670) bottom right, at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA., 31 October 1997 awaiting scrapping.	Courtesy of Don Sheldon.
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.