USS Growler (SSG-577)

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Career
Awarded:	31 July 1954
Laid down:	15 February 1955
Launched:	15 April 1958
Commissioned:	30 August 1958
Fate:	Donated as a Museum and Memorial
Stricken:	1 August 1980
General Characteristics
Displacement:	2110 tons light, 3550 tons full, 1440 tons dead
Length:	96.9 meters (318 feet) overall, 96.3 meters (316 feet) waterline
Beam:	8.2 meters (27 feet) extreme, 7.9 meters (26 feet) waterline
Draft:	5.7 meters (19 feet)
Speed:	20 knots surfaced, 12 knots submerged
Complement:	nine officers, 78 men
Armament:	Regulus missile launcher, two Regulus II or four Regulus I missiles, four bow and two stern 21-inch torpedo tubes

USS Growler (SSG-577), a Grayback-class submarine, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the growler, a large-mouth black bass. Her keel was laid down on 15 February 1955 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was launched on 5 April 1958 sponsored by Mrs. Robert K. Byerts, widow of Commander Thomas B. Oakley, Jr., who commanded the third Growler on her 9th, 10th, and fatal 11th war patrols. Growler commissioned at Portsmouth on 30 August 1958 with Lieutenant Commander Charles Priest, Jr., in command.

After training exercises off the East Coast Growler sailed south for her shakedown cruise, arriving at the Naval Air Station, Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, on 19 February 1959. After a brief run back to Portsmouth, she returned to the Caribbean Sea in March to train in launching Regulus I and II guided missiles. Growler returned to Portsmouth 19 April via Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and New London, Connecticut.

Growler then proceeded to the Pacific via Norfolk, Virginia, Key West, Florida, and the Panama Canal, putting in at Pearl Harbor on 7 September to serve as flagship of Submarine Division 12. At Pearl Harbor the guided missile sub participated in a variety of battle and torpedo exercises as well as missile practice before beginning her first Regulus Deterrent Mission. On this mission, which lasted from 12 March to 17 May 1960, Growler departed Hawaii with a full store of Regulus II sea-to-surface missiles, armed with nuclear warheads, and patrolled under a strict cloak of secrecy. Their patrols could last two months or more at a stretch and required them to remain submerged for hours and even days -- which at first hardly seems difficult when compared to the patrols of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, but was a strain for the crew of a much smaller diesel boat. It is traditional that the log entries for 0000 (midnight) on New Year's Day be made in verse. On 1 January 1961, during Growler's second patrol, Lieutenant (j.g.) Bruce Felt wrote: "Not our idea of fun and good cheers/But doing our job to ensure many New Years."

From May 1960 through December 1963 Growler had made nine such deterrent mission patrols, one of which, the fourth, terminated at Yokosuka, Japan, on 24 April 1962, as the Navy displayed one of its newest weapons.

Returning to Mare Island, California, Growler decommissioned 25 May 1964 and was placed in reserve. She was moved to the Inactive Fleet section in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 August 1980, and was scheduled to be used a torpedo target. However, on 8 August 1988, Congress awarded the hulk to Zachary Fisher, Chairman of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. The Regulus missile submarine is now on display at Pier 86, West 46th Street & 12th Avenue, New York City.

See USS Growler for other ships of the same name.

References

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