USS Whale (SSN-638) was a Sturgeon-class submarine nuclear-powered attack submarine of the United States Navy. She was the second ship of that name, after the whale family of aquatic mammals.
Construction and commissioning Whale's keel was laid down on 27 May 1964, at the General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division shipyard, in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 14 October 1966, sponsored by Mrs. Russell B. Long, the wife of United States Senator Russell B. Long, of Louisiana, and commissioned on 12 October 1968.
Service history
1968 Whale arrived in her first home port, Charleston, South Carolina, on 2 November 1968, and, after a week in port, put to sea on 9 November 1968, for shakedown training, which she completed in November and December 1968, along with a series of post-commissioning tests, trials, and qualifications. In January 1969, she began normal operations out of Charleston, with attack submarine training along the southeastern coast of the United States.
1969
On 18 March 1969, Whale stood out of Charleston, on her way north to operations above the Arctic Circle. She reached the North Pole, on 6 April 1969, and surfaced there in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary's 1909 arrival there. Following that event, she completed her mission under the polar ice cap and then headed south. After a visit to Faslane, Scotland, she voyaged home to Charleston, where she arrived on 9 May 1969. Following two months of local operations out of Charleston, Whale sailed for Groton, Connecticut, and her post-shakedown repair period. After three months in the shipyard of the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation, at Groton, she started back to Charleston, on 16 October 1969. She arrived at Charleston, on 20 October, and conducted local operations for the remainder of 1969.
1970 During the first half of 1970, Whale continued operations out of Charleston. In late January, she participated in tests with a Navy Underwater Demolition Team and, in February and March, took part in three major fleet exercises. In April, she headed north for a brief tour of duty as training ship for the Prospective Commanding Officers' School at New London, Connecticut. She returned to Charleston, at the end of the first week in May, and spent the remainder of the month conducting acoustic trials. Whale departed Charleston, on 27 July 1970, for an overseas deployment which she concluded in mid-September, with visits to Faslane and Holy Loch, in Scotland. While Whale visited Scotland, the Jordanian crisis, precipitated by civil war between the government of Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and aggravated by an incursion into northern Jordan by Syrian tanks, resulted a show of American strength in the eastern Mediterranean. Whale received orders to join the United States Sixth Fleet, in the Mediterranean, and did so near the end of September 1970. She remained in the Mediterranean through October and into November 1970. When the crisis abated, she headed for Charleston, arriving home on 18 November 1970, and remaining there for the remainder of the year.
1971–1972 Three fleet exercises and local operations out of Charleston, occupied Whale during the first half of 1971. Late in July, she deployed once more for special operations in the Atlantic Ocean, concluding that cruise late in September 1971, at Bremerhaven, West Germany. She returned to Charleston, on 12 October 1971, and resumed local operations upon arrival. That routine continued until 20 March 1972, when she departed once again for another special operations cruise in the Atlantic. At the end of that voyage, she made a brief call at Holy Loch, before returning to Charleston, on 9 June 1972. Almost two months after her return to the United States, Whale left Charleston, and headed north to Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, her new home port. She entered the shipyard at the Electric Boat Division, in Groton, on 7 August 1972, for a 46-week overhaul and remained there undergoing repairs until 27 October 1973.
1973–1974 Whale completed post-overhaul shakedown and refresher training in November and December 1973, and began preparations for another deployment to the Mediterranean, in response to the Middle Eastern crisis brought about by the Arab-Israeli War, in October 1973. Late in January 1974, however, she received notification that her deployment had been delayed until May 1974. During the interim, she conducted normal operations out of Groton, including submarine anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercises, attack submarine training, and a major fleet exercise, Operation Safe Passage. On 3 May 1974, she departed Groton en route the Mediterranean Sea. On 12 May 1974, she changed operational control from the United States Second Fleet to the Sixth Fleet. While in the Mediterranean, Whale participated in two North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercises, "International Week" and "Dale Falcon", with units of the Greek and Italian navies as well as several ASW exercises with other units of the Sixth Fleet. She passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and changed operational control back to the Commander, Submarines, United States Atlantic Fleet, on 18 October 1974. During the voyage back to Groton, Whale participated in a fleet ASW exercise which she completed on 28 October 1974. On 30 October 1974, she arrived at Groton.
1975–1976 Whale spent the next 11 months engaged in operations out of Groton. Various tests and evaluations occupied January, and the first half of February 1975. Between then and June 1975, she provided training services for various units of the Atlantic Fleet and for prospective commanding officers. Whale also served as a training platform for midshipmen during indoctrination cruises held late in the summer. On 29 September 1975, she stood out of Groton, for another deployment with the Sixth Fleet. During that cruise, she took part in a major Second Fleet exercise, "Ocean Safari", and after joining the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, took part in a succession of unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral exercises with units of the navies of Greece, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. She completed her tour of duty with the Sixth Fleet during the second week in March 1976, and arrived at Groton on 25 March 1976.
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