USS Grayback (SSG-574)

Grayback (LPSS-574), underway, c. 1968
History
Name:	USS Grayback
Ordered:	10 March 1951
Builder:	Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Laid down:	1 July 1954
Launched:	2 July 1957
Sponsored by:	Mr. John A. Moore
Commissioned:	7 March 1958, as SSG-574
Decommissioned:	25 May 1964
Recommissioned:	9 May 1969, as LPSS-574
Decommissioned:	15 January 1984
Struck:	16 January 1984
Homeport:	Pearl Harbor
Motto:	De Profundis Futurus
Fate:	Sunk as a target near Subic Bay, 13 April 1986
General characteristics
Class and type:	Grayback-class submarine
Displacement:	1,740 long tons (1,768 t) light 2,768 long tons (2,812 t) full
Length:	273 ft (83 m) later extended to 317 ft 7 in (96.80 m)
Beam:	27 ft 2 in (8.28 m)
Draft:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	3 Fairbanks-Morse Diesel engines, 2 Elliott electric motors
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) surfaced, 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) submerged
Complement:	84 officers and men
Armament:	2 × Regulus missile hangars (4 x Regulus I missiles or 2 x Regulus II missiles) 8 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern)

USS Grayback (SS/SSG/APSS/LPSS-574), the lead ship of her class of submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grayback.

Her keel was laid down on 1 July 1954 by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California. She was launched on 2 July 1957 sponsored by Mrs. John A. Moore, widow of the last skipper of the USS Grayback (SS-208) and commissioned at Mare Island on 7 March 1958 with Lieutenant Commander Hugh G. Nott in command. Grayback was initially designated as an attack submarine, but was converted to a Regulus nuclear cruise missile submarine (SSG-574) in 1958.

Grayback represented a new class of SSG guided missile submarines, and was to be the first to carry the Regulus II sea-to-surface missile. In 1958, Grayback conducted tests and shakedown along the West Coast. While operating out of Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California, in September 1958 she conducted the first successful launching of a Regulus II missile from a submarine, whose predecessor, Regulus I, had led to the capability of navies to attack land bases since its deployment in 1957. Regulus II was cancelled in December 1958 except for test firing of missiles already built, so Grayback operationally deployed with four Regulus I missiles. Departing San Diego, California, on 30 October, Grayback arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 November for a month of exercises and maneuvers before returning to Mare Island for her "10,000 mile checkup."