USS Trout (SS-566)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Awarded: | 14 May 1948 |
| Laid down: | 1 December 1949 |
| Launched: | 21 August 1951 |
| Commissioned: | 27 June 1952 |
| Fate: | to be disposed of by scrapping |
| Stricken: | 19 December 1978 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1615 tons light, 2108 tons surfaced, 2700 tons submerged |
| Length: | 81.9 meters (269 feet) |
| Beam: | 27 feet three inches |
| Draft: | 20 feet |
| Speed: | 16.3 knots surfaced, 17.4 knots submerged |
| Depth: | 700+ feet |
| Complement: | 8 officers, 75 men |
| Armament: | eight 21-inch torpedo tubes |
USS Trout (SS-566), a Tang-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the trout, small freshwater fishes highly esteemed by anglers for their gameness, their rich and finely flavored flesh, and their handsome (usually mottled or speckled) coloration. The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 14 May 1948 and her keel was laid down on 1 December 1949. She was launched on 21 August 1951 sponsored by Mrs. Albert H. Clark, the widow of Lieutenant Commander Albert H. Clark, the last commanding officer of Trout (SS-202), and commissioned on 27 June 1952, with Commander George W. Kittredge in command.
Trout operated out of New London, Connecticut, as a unit of Submarine Squadron (SubRon) 10 from 1952 to 1959. During this period, she conducted training and readiness operations with ships of the fleet and NATO nations, operating from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea. She engaged in sonar evaluation tests, practice ASW exercises, and submerged simulated attack exercises. During submerged exercises in polar waters in company with sister ship Harder (SS-568), Trout sailed 268 miles beneath Newfoundland ice floes, setting a distance record for conventionally-powered submarines.
In August 1959, Trout shifted her home port to Charleston, South Carolina, where she was assigned to SubRon 4. She was deployed to the Sixth Fleet in September 1959 for her first Mediterranean Sea cruise. Four months later, while returning home, she represented the United States at Bergen, Norway, during the 50th anniversary celebrations commemorating the birth of the Norwegian Navy's submarine arm.
In February 1960, Trout performed as a test bed for Bureau of Ships shock tests. She won her first Battle Efficiency "E" award in 1961. In early 1963, the submarine rendered services for the Operational Test and Evaluation Force before commencing a six-month overhaul at Charleston, South Carolina, in July of that year.
During the remaining years of the 1960s, Trout made three more Mediterranean deployments as a unit of the Sixth Fleet. Between deployments, she participated in training and developmental exercises off the east coast and in the Caribbean Sea. In July 1970, she was assigned to the Pacific Fleet.
Homeported at San Diego, California, Trout conducted two Western Pacific (WestPac) deployments, one in 1972 and one in 1975, primarily providing submarine services during ASW exercises conducted by warships of the United States, South Korean, or Nationalist Chinese navies. Between these deployments, the submarine participated in antisubmarine warfare exercises and conducted local operations off the southern California operating areas, punctuating this service with weapons tests in the Pacific Northwest, out of Puget Sound.
After returning from her second WestPac deployment to San Diego, California, on 29 January 1976, Trout enjoyed a brief unusual duty -- repeatedly diving and surfacing while being filmed. She appeared as the fictitious nuclear submarine USS Neptune in the opening credits of the movie "Gray Lady Down." She then received orders on 1 December changing her home port to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1977 and 1978 Trout was extensively overhauled. On 19 December 1978, with new engines, and new batteries in excellent materiel readiness, she was decommissioned, struck from the Naval Vessel Register, sold to the Shah of Iran, and renamed Kousseh. Her Iranian crew took her to New London, Connecticut, but abandoned her there in March 1979 following the Iranian revolution. She was retained at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania while finances were resolved, then returned to United States custody in 1992.
ex-Trout was sold at scrap value to the Program Executive Office for Undersea Warfare (PEO USW) in 1994 and moored at Newport, Rhode Island. She was then acquired by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Key West Detachment as a remotely controlled submersible sonar target ship, an underwater acoustic target for ASW research and development, operational testing, and training.
ex-Trout, the last of the Tang-class submarines, is even more sea-worthy than Pampanito (SS-383). Her status as a fully-functional diesel-electric submarine in superb condition -- her batteries are so new they have never been filled with electrolyte -- is unique in the United States Navy.
As of mid-2003, she was docked in Key West, Florida, under the control of NAVAIR, Marine and Targets Detachment, being prepared for towing to INACTSHIPS in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and subsequent demilitarization. Since it is effectively impossible to obtain a decommissioned nuclear-powered submarine for any purpose, Trout represents the last opportunity for any organization to acquire a submarine memorial from the United States Navy. If she is not acquired, she will be scrapped or disposed of as a target.
See USS Trout for other ships of the same name.
References
This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
| Tang-class submarine |
| List of submarines of the United States Navy List of submarine classes of the United States Navy |