USS Barracuda (SSK-1)

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Career
Laid down:	1 July 1949
Launched:	2 March 1951
Commissioned:	10 November 1951
Fate:	scrapped
General Characteristics
Displacement:	765 tons
Length:	196 feet 1 inch
Beam:	24 feet 7 inches
Draft:	14 feet 5 inches
Speed:	13 knots
Complement:	37 officers and men

USS Barracuda (SSK-1), the lead ship of her class, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the barracuda, a voracious, pike-like fish. Her keel was laid down on 1 July 1949 by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 2 March 1951 as K-1 sponsored by Mrs. Willis Manning Thomas, and commissioned on 10 November 1951 with Lieutenant Commander F. A. Andrews in command.

Barracuda joined Submarine Development Group 2 with her home port at New London, Connecticut. She cruised along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, in the Caribbean Sea, and made a voyage to Greenock and Rothesay, Scotland, in June 1955. On 16 December 1956 her name was changed from K-1 to Barracuda (SSK-1). During intervals between and after these cruises, Barracuda has operated along the eastern seaboard carrying out training and experimental exercises.

Barracuda was redesignated SST-3 on 3 July 1959 and decommissioned on 15 August 1959. She was scrapped between 8 April and 8 July 1974 near Charleston, South Carolina, possibly at the Braswell Shipyards.

See USS Barracuda for other ships of the same name.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.