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Some 590 History and other notes and Letters

PSNS GOES NUCLEAR

In 1965, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard achieved what would prove to be a pivotal landmark when repairs on the submarine USS Sculpin were completed. It was the first nuclear-powered ship to enter the yard for repairs.
In March 1967, PSNS became fully immersed in the nuclear age with the arrival of the submarine USS Snook as the shipyard launched its first full-fledged nuclear overhaul and refueling of an atomic powered plant.
By the end of 1968, the shipyard had completed three nuclear submarine overhauls, and was overhauling USS Adams, the first Polaris submarine to be refitted at PSNS.
The nuclear overhauls helped reverse a trend in declining PSNS employment that had bottomed out at 8,910 in 1963. By 1967, 10,018 were working at PSNS, earning an annual payroll of $88.7 million.
However, on Aug. 16, 1973, The Sun reported concerns about 14,000 cubic feet of radioactive solid waste produced there annually and processed water from nuclear plants being released into Sinclair Inlet.
Scrutiny regarding the safety of PSNS's nuclear waste handling revealed its non-nuclear solid and liquid waste disposal procedures were also cause for concern. On Sept. 20, 1973, The Sun reported PSNS would establish an $8 million pollution abatement program that would bring the shipyard into compliance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act no later than July 1, 1975.
Concern about the shipyard's industrial waste remains an occasionally contentious issue.

Published in The Sun: 12/31/1999         Submitted to this web site by A.R. Beam 590 vet

Scopin' out the sculpins in the Sound

Wes Nicholson

June 29, 2003
They're here, they're there, they're everywhere. Sculpins of all sizes! The trick is spotting them.
The sculpin family is a large, very diverse group of fishes. Ninety-two species live in the marine waters of the West Coast. Of these, 36 occur in Puget Sound. Many live within safe diving depths and some small species may even be found in tide pools.
Sculpins often are referred to as bullheads. They have large blunt heads, fan-like pectoral fins and rapidly tapering bodies. Most have two dorsal fins and display a pattern of dark saddles and blotches. Many change their colors to match the bottom.
Sculpins see divers far more often that divers see them. These well-camouflaged fish perch motionless on the bottom while large noisy divers pass by. I'm sure they sit there thinking, "You can't see me, I'm a rock." Some carry this rock imitation to the point that you can gently scoop them up and cup them in your hand.
Although masters of hiding and sitting still, many sculpins suffer from an overdose of curiosity. Divers may find and observe small sculpins by carefully kneeling on the bottom and waiting quietly for a few minutes.
Sculpins in the area will be compelled to move closer and check out the strange creature. Their movement gives them away.
The cabezon is the largest of the sculpins. Individuals may reach a length of 39 inches and weigh more than 30 pounds. It is one of the most commonly seen members of the family and is one of the few sculpins that are considered edible.
Although normally shy, adult males become aggressive when guarding their eggs and often will ram unsuspecting divers that blunder into their territory.
Although many sculpin species are small with maximum sizes of six inches or less, the smallest is likely the tadpole sculpin, with its maximum length of 2.5 inches. The grunt sculpin, measuring up to 3.5 inches, is a close second for the smallest sculpin and the definite winner as the cutest species.
These tiny, odd-shaped fish are very poor swimmers and often crawl along the bottom on their pectoral fins. Grunt sculpins commonly hide in empty giant barnacle shells where their strangely shaped heads and the bare rays of their pectoral fins allow them to do a great imitation of a barnacle with its feathery appendages outstretched to feed.
Sculpins are as common underwater as robins are above.
They're worth studying if you have a sincere interest in the inhabitants of Puget Sound's saltwater world.
Wes Nicholson is a writer and videographer who lives in Silverdale. He's been a scuba diver for six years, a PMSC volunteer for two years and a REEF volunteer for three years.
Submitted by A.R. Beam 590 Vet

Polaris construction…..

The simple answer to what Skipjack type boats were cut apart to make what Polaris boats is: One only, the hull that was to be Scorpion at EB. All other of the first five Polaris FBMs were built from the keel up. That being said, some explanation is in order.

1. It should be noted that even though a ship name is assigned, generally on keel laying, there are occasions where the name is changed during building. The name used on launching (christening) is the name the ship carries throughout her life. There are, however, exceptions.

2. The submarine launched missile program generated some interesting ship designations until things got formalized. The first was the SSG(N) (FBM) which generally was used to describe the concepts associated with the Jupiter missile projects although it carried over to the early Polaris designs.
The next was SSG(N) which was used throughout 1957 and into 1958. This was changed to SSB(N) in 1959. The George Washington was launched as (SSBN-598). The use of parentesis around the N was not always used, especially in signs.

3. What follows is general run of events that led to the USS George Washington and a general accounting of all the Skipjacks and the first 5 FBMs.

An SSGN,was similar in concept to the Halibut, but with the improved S5W reactor plant the basic Thresher class hull was in the works. SSGN 600 was to be one of these. It was to have four hangers each carrying one or more missiles. At the same time, a separate path of missile design was ongoing. This path was to use a modified Jupiter missile in a configuration which had four missile tubes in an enlarged sail. A Jupiter equipped SSBN was included in the FY 1959 budget. This plan was scrapped when in 1956, the Jupiter equipped submarine program was scrapped and work turned to using a solid fueled missile (to
become the Polaris). The Secretary of Defense required the Navy to make a definitive choice in the programs. It should be remembered that this was at the time that there was a real battle between the Navy and the Air Force about control of strategic forces.

The Navy scrapped the Regulus development program, stopped Regulus I production and cut Regulus II production and ended the Triton development program. All the efforts were to be used in development of the Polaris. The Polaris program accelerated and the plan of putting 16 missile tubes in two rows of eight on a Skipjack or Thresher class hull and have it ready by 1963. By year's end the Special Projects Office (SPO) had a way to get everything put together (lightweight warhead, submarine, navigation system, and missile) by late 1960. To do this a submarine had to be designed.

Rather than use the Thresher design for the first five of the new SSBN's, the Skipjack design was far enough along to allow it to be used with significant modifications. It was also decided to spread the work load around to get faster results. EB had a hull on the ways which was to become the USS Scorpion and the USS Skipjack was nearly ready for launch. The Scorpion hull was selected as the first conversion. At the same time, Mare Island which was getting ready to build the boat which was to become the USS Scamp, and Newport News which had parts and sections for the boat which was to be the USS Shark got
orders to build SSBNs, one each. Neither had laid the keels for the Skipjack class boats (which were actually to be a separate (SSN 588) class. Portsmouth had no Skipjacks being built, but with available space, got orders to built two of the Polaris boats as soon as the design was finalized.

The conversion from Scorpion to George Washington was not as simple as slicing the hull forward of the reactor compartment and inserting a missile compartment. The control planes had to be enlarged, the hydraulics plant beefed up, the air systems enlarged and so on. Berthing and stowage spaces had to be redesigned. Many of the long lead time items could be used for both types (Skipjack and George Washington) and orders went out to double the orders for these. For example, there were 6 torpedo tubes in the bow of a Skipjack class. Given that 5 boats were on order, there were five shipsets of tubes on order. This was doubled to ten shipsets to have enough for the five new Polaris boats also. When a shipset was ready to deliver, it might have been originally assigned to a Skipjack class boat at one shipyard,
but may have been actually diverted to one of the Polaris boats at another yard. Some of these long lead time items had already been delivered or were being fabricated at the building yards. What boat they went into depended on which boat needed them first.

At EB, the Scorpion was cut apart and used to constuct the George Washington. The Patrick Henry was laid down in the ways vacated by the launch of the Skipjack, within 18 hours of the launching. At Mare Island, the Roosevelt was laid down on empty ways. Scamp (588) was laid down in the building ways vacated by the launch of Halibut. The R. E. Lee (Newport News hull number 546) at Newport News was also laid down in an empty building way. The Shark was under construction, at Newport News, (Newport News hull number 545) having been laid started the previous February. She was launched three months after the R.E. Lee. Undoubtly some parts originally destined for Shark went into Lee to speed Lee's construction, but the Shark remained intact. Ingals had the contracts to build two Skipjacks, Sculpin and Snook. Portsmouth got the contracts for one Polaris boat, the Abraham Lincoln.

This accounts for the all the Skipjacks and all the George Washington class FBMs.