USS Thresher (SSN-593)
USS Thresher (SSN-593) underway, 30 April 1961.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Thresher |
| Ordered: | 15 January 1958 |
| Builder: | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 28 May 1958 |
| Launched: | 9 July 1960 |
| Commissioned: | 3 August 1961 |
| Struck: | 10 April 1963 |
| Motto: | Vis Tacita (Silent Strength) |
| Fate: | Sank with all hands during deep diving tests, 10 April 1963, 129 died. |
| Status: | Located 350 km east of Cape Cod at a depth of 8400 ft. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Thresher-class submarine |
| Displacement: | 3,540 short tons (3,210 t) light, 3,770 short tons (3,420 t) submerged |
| Length: | 279 ft (85 m) |
| Beam: | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draft: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 Westinghouse S5W PWR, Westinghouse Geared Turbines 15,000 shp (11 MW) |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Complement: | 16 officers, 96 men |
| Armament: | 4 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes amidships |
The second USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy. She was the U.S. Navy's second submarine to be named after the thresher shark.
Her loss at sea in the North Atlantic during deep-diving tests approximately 220 miles (350 km) east of Boston, Massachusetts, on 10 April 1963, was a watershed event for the U.S. Navy, leading to the implementation of a rigorous submarine safety program known as SUBSAFE. Lost with 129 crew and shipyard personnel, Thresher is the first of only two submarines to exceed 100 onboard deaths, joined by the Russian Kursk's 118 lost in 2000. Thresher was the world's first nuclear submarine lost at sea.
At the time it was built, Thresher was the fastest (matching the smaller, contemporary Skipjack class) and quietest submarine in the world. SSN 593 was considered the most advanced weapons system of its day, created specifically to seek out and destroy Soviet submarines. Its new sonar (both passive and active) was able to detect other submarines and ships at greater range, and it was intended to launch the U.S. Navy's newest anti-submarine missile, the SUBROC. In writing about its significance shortly after its loss, the Commander of Submarine Force Atlantic – in the March 1964 issue of the U.S. Naval Institute's monthly journal Proceedings – stated that, "the Navy had depended upon this performance to the extent that it had asked for and received authority to build 14 of these ships, as well as an additional 11 SSNs with very much the same characteristics. This was the first time since World War II that we had considered our design sufficiently advanced to embark upon construction of a large class of general-purpose attack submarines."
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