USS Dolphin (AGSS-555)
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| History | |
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| Namesake: | Dolphin |
| Ordered: | 10 August 1960 |
| Builder: | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 9 November 1962 |
| Launched: | 8 June 1968 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Daniel Inouye |
| Commissioned: | 17 August 1968 |
| Decommissioned: | 15 January 2007 |
| Out of service: | 22 September 2006 |
| Struck: | 15 January 2007 |
| Status: | Museum Ship at the Maritime Museum of San Diego |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Dolphin-class submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 46.3 m (151 ft 11 in) |
| Beam: | 6 m (19 ft 8 in) |
| Draft: | 4.8 m (15 ft 9 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | |
| Endurance: | 15 days |
| Test depth: | 3,000 ft (910 m) (unclassified) |
| Capacity: | 12 tons on external mounting pads, six port, six starboard, forward and aft of sail |
| Complement: | 3 officers, 20 men, 4 scientists (46 crew, all are not deployed.) |
| Armament: | smallarms. No internal torpedo tubes. An external tube could be mounted to be used for experiments. |
| Notes: | fitted with a 20-ton keel section to be jettisoned by explosive bolts for surfacing under emergency conditions |
USS Dolphin (AGSS-555) was the United States Navy's last operational diesel-electric deep-diving research and development submarine. She was commissioned in 1968 and decommissioned in 2007.
The keel of the USS Dolphin was laid on 9 November 1962 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 8 June 1968, sponsored by Mrs. Daniel K. Inouye, and commissioned on 17 August 1968 with Lieutenant Commander J.R. McDonnell in command. Despite a recent repair and upgrade, Dolphin was decommissioned on 15 January 2007 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on the same date. She is now a museum ship in San Diego Bay under the management of the San Diego Maritime Museum.
The single most significant technical achievement in the development of Dolphin is the pressure hull itself. It is a constant diameter cylinder, closed at its ends with hemispherical heads, and utilizes deep frames instead of bulkheads. The entire design of the pressure hull has been kept as simple as possible to facilitate its use in structural experiments and trials. Hull openings have been minimized for structural strength and minimum hull weight, in addition to eliminating possible sources for flooding casualties. The submarine has no snorkel mast; her one hatch must be open while her diesels are running.
Employed by both civilian and Navy activities, Dolphin is equipped with an extensive instrumentation suite that supports missions such as acoustic deep-water and littoral research, near-bottom and ocean surveys, weapons launches, sensor trials, and engineering evaluations.
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