USS Pogy ( SSN - 647 ) USS " Pogy " ( SSN - 647 ) , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pogy , or menhaden . Construction and commissioning . The contract to build " Pogy " was awarded on 23 March 1963 , and her keel was laid down on 5 May 1964 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden , New Jersey , on 5 May 1964 . She was launched on 3 June 1967 , under the sponsorship of Mrs . George Wales . On 5 June 1967 , the contract for her construction was canceled , and she was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , in an incomplete state and laid up . On 7 December 1967 , the contract for construction of " Pogy " was reassigned to Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula , Mississippi , and the incomplete submarine was towed to that shipyard on 8 January 1968 for completion . Seven days underway , from Philadelphia to Pascagoula the tow line broke and Pogy was adrift . " Pogy " was commissioned on 15 May 1971 . Service history . " Pogy " put to sea on 22 April 1975 for local operations . On 27 April 1975 , about off the coast of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands , her lookout sighted a capsized 15 - foot ( 4 . 6 meters ) sailboat drifting out to sea , and the crew quickly rescued the boats owner . He had been in the water for about an hour , and his only injuries were scrapes and bruises incurred while being hoisted up the rough side of the submarine . The same day , " Pogy " conducted SINKEX 1 - 75 , a test of a warshot Mark 48 torpedo against a target submarine . She intercepted the decommissioned hulk of submarine drifting on the surface and carrying a noisemaker for the torpedo to home on acoustically . " Pogy " verified positions using her periscope , then dived to about 200 feet ( 61 meters ) to shoot the torpedo . Interior Communications Electrician IC1 ( SS ) Joseph J . Varese , who had earned his Submarine Warfare insignia on " Carbonero " , and was now leading petty officer of " Pogy " s Interior Communications Division , was given the honor of throwing the firing switch to shoot the torpedo . A few minutes later , " Pogy " transmitted the traditional message : " SIGHTED SUBMARINE SANK SAME " . On 25 August 1996 , " Pogy " deployed in support of SCICEX - 96 experiments . In October 1996 , she transited the Bering Strait and began collecting thousands of water samples from over a hundred locations under the polar ice cap in the Arctic Ocean . She continuously recorded ocean current s and water salinity and temperature , and surfaced 19 times through the ice cap to measure surface conditions before returning to San Diego , California , on 26 November 1996 . Decommissioning and disposal . " Pogy " was decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 June 1999 . Her scrapping via the Nuclear - Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton , Washington , was completed on 12 April 2000 . Commemoration . " Pogy " s diving plane fins can be seen as part of The Fin Project at Pelican Harbor Park in Miami , Florida . USS " Pogy " in fiction . In the 1984 Tom Clancy novel " The Hunt for Red October " , " Pogy " and the attack submarine escort the fictitious defecting Soviet Navy ballistic missile submarine " Red October " . However , " Pogy " is not mentioned or depicted in the 1990 film " The Hunt for Red October " adapted from the novel .