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USS Seadragon (SSN 584)

USS SEADRAGON was the fourth and final SKATE - class nuclear-powered attack submarine and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Decommissioned on June 12, 1984, and stricken from the Navy list on April 30, 1986, the SEADRAGON spent the following years at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Wash., awaiting to be disposed of through the Navy’s Nuclear Powered Surface Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. The SEADRAGON entered the Recycling Program on October 1, 1994, and finished it on September 18, 1995.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS SEADRAGON. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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Accidents aboard USS SEADRAGON:

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USS SEADRAGON History:

USS SEADRAGON was laid down on June 20, 1956, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, as the fourth and final unit of the SKATE-class and the second ship of the United States Navy to bear the name Seadragon. She was launched on August 16, 1958, sponsored by Mrs. Robert L. Dennison, wife of Admiral Robert L. Dennison, and commissioned on December 5, 1959, with Lieutenant Commander George P. Steele in command. SEADRAGON entered service during the early period of the Navy's nuclear-powered submarine program, when the United States was converting the pioneering experience gained with USS NAUTILUS (SSN 571) and other first-generation nuclear submarines into a more regular fleet capability. The SKATE-class boats were smaller and less capable than later nuclear attack submarines, but they gave the Navy a practical class of submarines able to remain submerged for long periods, operate far from support bases, and work beneath Arctic ice, a region that had become increasingly important in Cold War naval planning.

Before commissioning, SEADRAGON had already been prepared for the kind of under-ice work that would define the beginning of her career. During sea trials on October 6, 1959, she collided with a whale, but the resulting damage was minor and did not prevent her from entering service two months later. After commissioning, she conducted shakedown operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean and then returned to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for post-shakedown work. These early months involved the normal trials of propulsion, diving, sonar, navigation, ship-control, and combat systems, but they also prepared the submarine for an unusual transfer to the Pacific Fleet. Rather than proceeding through the Panama Canal, SEADRAGON was assigned to reach the Pacific by way of the Arctic and the Northwest Passage, turning her change of fleet assignment into a major operational and scientific voyage.

On August 1, 1960, USS SEADRAGON departed Portsmouth for the Pacific under Lieutenant Commander George P. Steele. She proceeded northward through the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay toward the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Her planned route took her into the Parry Channel, the passage formed by Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound, and McClure Strait. Earlier surface navigators had often been blocked by ice in this region, and hydrographic knowledge remained incomplete. SEADRAGON used the journal of the British explorer Edward Parry as a historical guide while relying on nuclear propulsion, sonar, fathometers, upward-looking instruments, ice-detection equipment, and specialized under-ice navigation procedures to move through the Arctic route beneath the ice canopy.

During the approach to the Arctic passage, SEADRAGON tested her equipment against icebergs in Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound. These tests helped the crew distinguish between ice overhead, icebergs ahead, and shoal water below. The submarine examined icebergs from below, recorded periscope observations, and gathered hydrographic and oceanographic data. The mission served both naval and scientific purposes: the Navy needed to determine how safely nuclear-powered submarines could use Arctic waters, while scientists needed better information on ice thickness, currents, water temperatures, bottom contours, and the navigability of the Northwest Passage.

On August 15, 1960, SEADRAGON reached Lancaster Sound at the eastern end of the Parry Channel. She continued westward through Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound, and McClure Strait. On August 21, 1960, she completed the first submarine transit of the Northwest Passage by this route and entered the Beaufort Sea. From there, she continued northward toward the geographic North Pole. On August 25, 1960, SEADRAGON reached the pole and surfaced through thin ice, becoming the third United States Navy submarine to surface at the North Pole after USS SKATE (SSN 578) and USS SARGO (SSN 583). While at the pole, members of the crew went onto the ice, scientific observations were conducted, and the crew laid out a ball field around the geographic pole for a brief game on the ice. The episode became one of the better-known human details of the cruise, but the larger significance of the event was operational: SEADRAGON had moved from the Atlantic to the Arctic, passed through the Northwest Passage, and reached the pole during a single under-ice deployment.

After leaving the North Pole area on August 27, 1960, SEADRAGON continued southward. She conducted experiments in cooperation with scientists on Ice Island T-3 and then proceeded toward the Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait. On September 5, 1960, she reached Nome, Alaska, where she anchored in the roadstead and received local support. During this stage of the voyage, she was associated with the Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC NORTHWIND (WAGB 282), which was also operating in Arctic waters. On September 14, 1960, SEADRAGON arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, her new home port. For the Northwest Passage transit through the Parry Channel, SEADRAGON received the Navy Unit Commendation.

For the next nine months, SEADRAGON operated locally from Pearl Harbor. These operations included training, maintenance, tactical development work, and exercises in Hawaiian waters as the submarine settled into Pacific Fleet service. In June 1961, she departed for her first western Pacific deployment. During that tour, she participated in Seventh Fleet exercises, with particular emphasis on antisubmarine warfare training. This was a period in which the Seventh Fleet was increasingly active across the western Pacific, and nuclear-powered attack submarines were being incorporated more fully into exercises designed to improve the detection, tracking, and engagement of submarine threats. During the deployment, SEADRAGON also completed a 58-day submerged endurance cruise, demonstrating the long-duration capability that nuclear propulsion had brought to submarine operations. She returned to Pearl Harbor in October 1961 and resumed local operations.

On July 12, 1962, SEADRAGON departed Pearl Harbor for her second Arctic cruise. She transited northward through the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea, contacted Ice Island T-3, and then continued toward a rendezvous with her sister ship USS SKATE, which had come from New London, Connecticut. On July 31, 1962, the two submarines met beneath the ice and proceeded toward the North Pole together. They reached the pole on August 2, 1962, and surfaced through the ice for sonar and weapons evaluations. The submarines were joined in the area by USS BURTON ISLAND (AGB 1), an icebreaker then still in Navy service. The joint operation demonstrated that two nuclear-powered submarines could coordinate under the polar ice, rendezvous, surface, and conduct evaluation work in the same remote operating area. For SEADRAGON, the cruise confirmed and extended the Arctic experience gained during the 1960 Northwest Passage voyage.

In late August 1962, SEADRAGON and USS SKATE returned toward their respective home ports. During the southbound transit, SEADRAGON rescued twelve survivors from a downed seaplane and delivered them to Port Angeles, Washington, before continuing onward. On September 14, 1962, she arrived back at Pearl Harbor and resumed Pacific Fleet duties.

During the first half of 1963, SEADRAGON participated in local Hawaiian operations and conducted her second western Pacific deployment. Publicly available details of that deployment are limited, but it formed part of the regular Pacific Fleet attack-submarine pattern of the period: exercises with Seventh Fleet forces, antisubmarine warfare training, and maintenance of submarine readiness across the western Pacific. On July 8, 1963, she entered Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for her first refueling and overhaul. This was a major shipyard period and included reactor refueling, inspections, maintenance, and modernization work required after the submarine's first years of intensive service, which had included two Arctic cruises, long submerged operations, and western Pacific deployment work.

SEADRAGON resumed operations in the Hawaiian area in late May 1964. After returning to service, she conducted torpedo evaluations off the Washington coast. On August 10, 1964, shortly after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, she sailed west in response to the crisis. The Gulf of Tonkin incident had sharply increased American naval activity in Southeast Asian waters, and Pacific Fleet units were being positioned to support Seventh Fleet operations during rising tension between the United States and North Vietnam. During September and October 1964, SEADRAGON operated out of Subic Bay in the Philippines. After that period of operations, she visited Hong Kong.

On October 27, 1964, USS SEADRAGON became the first nuclear-powered vessel to visit Hong Kong. The visit had significance beyond a routine port call because visits by nuclear-powered warships were still uncommon and politically sensitive. After Hong Kong, SEADRAGON continued to Okinawa and Japan for public-relations cruises and additional Seventh Fleet exercises. On November 12, 1964, she entered Sasebo, Japan, becoming the first nuclear-powered submarine to visit that port. The visit occurred within the framework of the United States-Japan security relationship and drew attention because nuclear propulsion and possible nuclear-weapons associations were politically sensitive in Japan and closely watched by China and the Soviet Union. SEADRAGON remained in the western Pacific through the end of the deployment and returned to Pearl Harbor on March 4, 1965.

After her return in March 1965, SEADRAGON resumed local operations, upkeep, and training from Pearl Harbor. In February 1965, Commander R. E. Engle had relieved Commander D. B. Guthe as commanding officer. Under Engle, the submarine continued Pacific Fleet service during a period when the Vietnam War was becoming the central operational concern for American naval forces in the western Pacific.

In the fall of 1966 and early 1967, SEADRAGON became the first nuclear-powered attack submarine to visit Yokosuka, Japan. This visit was another politically visible milestone in the gradual acceptance of nuclear-powered American warships in Japanese ports. Yokosuka was a major American naval base in Japan, but nuclear-powered submarine visits were sensitive because of Japanese domestic concerns over nuclear issues and because of regional reactions from China and the Soviet Union. SEADRAGON's visit therefore had a diplomatic dimension as well as an operational one. In June 1967, Commander A. S. Glazier relieved Commander Engle as commanding officer.

During the remainder of the 1960s, SEADRAGON continued to operate from Pearl Harbor as part of the Pacific submarine force. She conducted local operations, training, evaluation exercises, and western Pacific deployments while maintaining the cycle of upkeep and readiness expected of a nuclear-powered attack submarine. Her work during this period fitted the normal duties of Pacific Fleet attack submarines: participation in fleet exercises, antisubmarine warfare training, support of tactical development, and maintenance of operational readiness during a period shaped by the Vietnam War, continued Cold War competition with the Soviet Union, and expanding Soviet submarine activity.

In July 1968, SEADRAGON interrupted this deployment rhythm and entered Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a 34-month overhaul and refueling period. The availability was a major interruption in her active operating schedule and included reactor refueling, propulsion-plant maintenance, inspections, modernization work, and general refurbishment. Such long overhauls were essential for first-generation nuclear-powered submarines whose early service had involved demanding operating patterns, including under-ice cruises, long submerged transits, western Pacific deployments, and repeated exercises. SEADRAGON remained in overhaul through the remainder of 1968, all of 1969, and into 1971.

In March 1971, SEADRAGON resumed her previous deployment schedule. She returned to the familiar pattern of local operations in Hawaiian waters, training and evaluation exercises off the West Coast, and deployments to the Seventh Fleet in the western Pacific. By this time, newer classes of nuclear-powered attack submarines were entering service, but SEADRAGON remained an active Pacific Fleet unit. Her Arctic experience and long Pacific service continued to make her useful for fleet training and operations that did not require the higher speed, greater quieting, and more modern sensors of later submarines.

In August 1972, Commander T. L. Jacobs relieved Commander Glazier as commanding officer. SEADRAGON made another Arctic voyage in 1973. Publicly available summaries identify this as one of her later under-ice operations. The operation formed part of the Navy's continuing development of under-ice procedures during the Cold War. By the 1970s, Arctic submarine operations had moved beyond first demonstrations, but they remained technically demanding. SEADRAGON's participation linked her early pioneering Northwest Passage work with the more regular polar operations of the mature nuclear submarine force.

In February 1976, Lieutenant Commander N. P. Emerson relieved Commander Jacobs as commanding officer. During the mid- and late 1970s, SEADRAGON remained assigned to the Pacific submarine force and was attached to Submarine Squadron Seven. Her normal operating pattern continued: local Hawaiian training, upkeep, western Pacific deployments, evaluation exercises, and periodic maintenance. By this period, the SKATE-class boats were no longer among the Navy's most modern nuclear attack submarines, but they remained operationally useful for training, fleet support, and missions compatible with their capabilities.

In August 1979, Commander J. W. Jordan relieved Emerson as commanding officer. SEADRAGON continued Pacific Fleet service into the early 1980s. By September 1982, Commander John H. Stein Jr. was in command of SEADRAGON, and the submarine was again operating forward in the western Pacific. In January 1983, SEADRAGON visited Hobart, Tasmania, becoming the first nuclear-powered attack submarine to visit that Australian port. The Hobart call took place during a period when visits by nuclear-powered warships to foreign ports could still attract political attention, particularly in countries with active public debate over nuclear propulsion, nuclear weapons policy, and alliance obligations. For SEADRAGON, the visit was one of the last notable port-call milestones of her active career.

On October 1, 1983, inactivation work began at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. This marked the beginning of the end of SEADRAGON's active service. By then, she was one of the older nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy, and the fleet was increasingly centered on later classes with improved endurance, quieter machinery, more capable sonar suites, and more modern weapons and fire-control systems. SEADRAGON had nevertheless remained in service for nearly a quarter century, spanning the period from the first generation of practical nuclear-powered fleet submarines to the era in which nuclear attack submarines had become routine instruments of American naval operations.

USS SEADRAGON was decommissioned on June 12, 1984. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1986. After several years in inactive status, ex-SEADRAGON entered the Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, on October 1, 1994. Recycling was completed on September 18, 1995. Her career had included the first submarine transit of the Northwest Passage, repeated Arctic operations, early nuclear-powered submarine visits to Hong Kong and Japanese ports, thirteen western Pacific deployments, three refueling overhauls at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, and service through much of the Cold War period in which nuclear-powered submarines became central to American naval operations.

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