USS Sargo (SSN-583)
USS Sargo surfaced at the North Pole on 9 February 1960. (U.S. Navy photo)
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| History | |
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 United States of America
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| Name: | USS Sargo |
| Namesake: | The Sargo, a food and game fish of the Porgy family |
| Ordered: | 29 September 1955 |
| Builder: | Mare Island Naval Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 21 February 1956 |
| Launched: | 10 October 1957 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Frank T. Watkins |
| Commissioned: | 1 October 1958 |
| Decommissioned: | 21 April 1988 |
| Struck: | 21 April 1988 |
| Motto: | Two Screws Are Better Than One |
| Fate: | Recycled 1995 |
| Status: | Recycled |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Skate-class submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 267 ft 7 in (81.56 m) |
| Beam: | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
| Draft: | 22 ft 5 in (6.83 m) |
| Propulsion: | S3W reactor |
| Speed: | 23 knots (26 mph; 43 km/h) |
| Complement: | 95 officers and men |
| Armament: | 8 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 2 aft) |
USS Sargo (SSN-583), a Skate-class nuclear-powered submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sargo, a food and game fish of the porgy family, inhabiting coastal waters of the southern United States.
The contract to build her was awarded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, on 29 September 1955 and her keel was laid down on 21 February 1956. She was launched on 10 October 1957, sponsored by the wife of Rear Admiral Frank T. Watkins, and commissioned on 1 October 1958 with Commander Daniel P. Brooks in command.
Prior to completion, Sargo was designated for an Arctic cruise. She received alterations to strengthen her sail before she left the building yard. Further modifications followed her 19,000 mile (35,200 km) Pacific shakedown cruise. After her arrival at her home port, Pearl Harbor, on 1 October 1959, scientific instruments were installed to assist her in navigating under the shifting polar ice with its potentially hazardous submerged pressure ridges; in locating open leads and thin ice through which to surface, and in gathering oceanographic and hydrographic data. November and December 1959 brought intensive training programs and the embarkation of scientific specialists; and, on 18 January 1960, Sargo, under the command of Lieutenant Commander J.H. Nicholson, cleared Pearl Harbor and headed north to make a submerged exploration of the Arctic Ocean.
By 25 January, Sargo had reached the vicinity of St. Matthews Island where she found ice, block and brash and where, after rendezvousing with the United States Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island (AGB-5) she made her first stationary dive while surrounded by ice. On 29 January, she passed the Diomede Islands and crossed the Arctic Circle; and, on 9 February, she arrived under the North Pole.
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