USS Swordfish ( SSN - 579 ) USS " Swordfish " ( SSN - 579 ) , a , was the second submarine of the United States Navy named for the swordfish , a large fish with a long , swordlike beak and a high dorsal fin . The contract to build her was awarded to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery , Maine on 18 July 1955 , and her keel was laid down on 25 January 1956 . She was launched on 27 August 1957 sponsored by Mrs . Eugene C . Riders , and commissioned on 15 September 1958 with Commander Shannon D . Cramer , Jr . , in command . History . " Swordfish " completed fitting out and held her shakedown in the Atlantic . After post - shakedown availability and subsequent sea trials along the east coast , she was assigned a home port in Pearl Harbor , Territory of Hawaii , effective 16 March 1959 . She steamed to Hawaii in July and was the second nuclear - powered submarine to join the Pacific Fleet , joining . Assigned to Submarine Squadron 1 , " Swordfish " steamed over 35 , 000 miles during her first year in commission with over 80 % of them submerged . In January 1960 , " Swordfish " deployed to the western Pacific for four months and became the first nuclear submarine in that area . During this time , President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai - Shek was embarked for a one - day indoctrination cruise . She deployed to WestPac again on 20 June and on this occasion took President of the Philippines Carlos P . Garcia to sea for a one - day demonstration . The submarine conducted local operations in the Hawaiian area from January to May 1961 . In late May , the submarine got underway for the west coast of the United States where she operated between San Diego , California , and San Francisco , California , with various Pacific Fleet units . " Swordfish " returned to Pearl Harbor on 14 July and operated locally until September when she deployed to the western Pacific for two months . " Swordfish " sailed to Mare Island in January 1962 and became the first nuclear submarine to be overhauled on the Pacific coast . She returned to Hawaii on 29 September for refresher training and local operations . On 26 October , the submarine was again deployed to WestPac . In the autumn of 1963 " Swordfish " observed from close range a Soviet anti - submarine warfare exercise in the North Pacific . She was detected , but the Soviets were unable to force her to surface . The mission provided recordings of the Soviets ' radio chatter and plots of their radar search patterns . " Swordfish " continued operating from Pearl Harbor , on local operations and on deployments to the western Pacific , as a member of Submarine Division 71 until 30 June 1965 when she was assigned to SubDiv 11 which was also based there . In late 1965 , " Swordfish " was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for special operations from 8 October to 3 December 1963 , from 22 September to 25 November 1964 , and from 20 May to 23 July 1965 . " Swordfish " arrived at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard on 1 November 1965 to undergo a refueling and SubSafe overhaul which lasted until 31 August 1967 . Sea trials were held in September and weapons trials in early October . She returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 October and conducted refresher training until 31 December 1967 . The period 1 January to 2 February 1968 was spent in preparation for overseas movement . " Swordfish " deployed to the western Pacific on 3 February . On 8 March 1968 , " K - 129 " , a Golf - II class submarine , sank northwest of Oahu . On 17 March , " Swordfish " put into Yokosuka , Japan , for emergency repairs to a bent periscope . The United States Navy states that " Swordfish " was damaged in an ice pack and that " K - 129 " , with her nuclear missiles and crew of 98 , was destroyed by an internal explosion , perhaps hydrogen from its batteries , perhaps a torpedo , while some 2000 miles ( 3 , 000 km ) distant from " Swordfish " . In May 1968 , anti - nuclear activists alleged that " Swordfish " had released radioactive coolant water into the harbor of Sasebo , Japan where she was moored at the time . Some sources state that Japanese scientists discovered levels up to twenty times normal background , others , that they could not detect any increase in radioactivity . The Japanese protested the incident to the United States , and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato stated that U . S . nuclear ships would no longer be allowed to call at Japanese ports unless their safety could be guaranteed . " Swordfish " returned to Pearl Harbor on 5 September and remained in port the remaining four months of the year . " Swordfish " conducted local operations in the Hawaiian area from 1 January to 11 May 1969 at which time she again deployed until 4 November . The remainder of the year was spent in a leave and upkeep period . She was deployed on special operations from 24 February to 9 April 1970 and then entered drydock at Pearl Harbor for an availability period which lasted until 30 September . The remainder of calendar year 1970 was spent conducting a period of crew training necessitated by the yard period . Local operations during 1971 were broken by a tour in WestPac from 24 March to 22 September . During this deployment , the submarine visited Yokosuka , Buckner Bay , Pusan , and Hong Kong . " Swordfish " continued local operations until 26 June 1972 when she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for her annual overhaul which lasted through 31 December 1973 . Upon completion of the yard period , " Swordfish " resumed operations with her Pearl Harbor - based squadron . On 22 June 1977 , " Swordfish " launched a Mark 14 torpedo which made a circular run and hit the port screw . Fortunately , it was an exercise torpedo . " Swordfish " returned to port for 24 hours , did a screw change , and went back to sea . " Swordfish " made a deployment to the western Pacific from October 1977 until March , 1978 , stopping in Yokosuka , Pusan , Chinhae , Guam , Philippines , and Hong Kong . In July 1979 the " Swordfish " began a western Pacific deployment , stopping in Yokosuka , Pusan , and the territory of Guam . After refitting in Guam the ship began operations again , but was forced to return to Guam after several days to repair the diesel engine after the muffler exhaust valve broke , flooding the engine . After repairs were made the deployment continued without incident until the ship ' s return to Pearl Harbor in December 1979 . Local operations were carried out until the ship was deployed to the western Pacific during the summer of 1980 . Upon returning to Pearl Harbor the ship resumed local operations until entering Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for overhaul and refueling in March 1981 . Final casualty . In late October 1985 , " Swordfish " was delayed in departing Pearl Harbor due to the failure of the drain pump . A replacement was obtained from , in the shipyard for decommissioning , but " Swordfish " put to sea before the pump was fully connected and tested , and the crew could not get the pump to operate . Since the engine room bilges could not be pumped , by the evening of 23 October , the first day at sea , the water in the engine room lower level bilge was over the deck plates ( more than four feet ) . The crew tried to use a portable submersible pump , but were not successful . When the water level got high enough to get up into the bottoms of the motors for the main lube oil pumps , causing grounds , the Captain came aft and saw the situation and decided to take the boat shallow to allow pumping bilges . When the planesmen put a slight up - angle on the boat to come shallow the water in the bilges instantly rushed aft , greatly increasing its effect on trim ( this is known as " free surface effect " , later classes of subs have flood control bulkheads in engineroom lower level to prevent this ) and causing an up - angle of about 45 degrees . When " fire in engineroom lower level " was announced , due to water in the main lube oil pump motors , a man in the aft end of engineroom upper level opened the watertight door into the stern room , which swung into the stern room , to retrieve a fire extinguisher . Just then the up - angle increased dramatically and the bilge water began pouring in . The door was shut before the boat surfaced . With the boat on an even keel , the water came up to the deadlight in the door . The maneuvering watchstanders began to take the immediate actions for loss of shaft lube oil ; the throttleman began to shut the throttles for the main engines . Without propulsion , the extreme up - angle caused the ship to quickly stop and begin moving backwards , sinking stern first . When the fire was announced , the Engineer had gone to Maneuvering ( the control center of the engine room ) . He saw the depth gage indicating a rapid increase in depth , ordered " Ahead Full " on his own initiative , and opened the starboard forward throttle himself in an effort to drive the ship to the surface . In Control , the Captain saw similar indications , and ordered " Blow Aft ! " . Before the Chief of the Watch could initiate the blow on the aft group the up - angle became so steep that he was unable to maintain footing and slid to the rear of the Control compartment . He quickly climbed back up to the emergency blow " chicken switches " and opened the after group valve . " Swordfish " surfaced successfully . However , during the up - angle the freshwater drain collecting tank vents were submerged and sucked contaminated water into the feed system . The steam generator water could not be analyzed immediately because nucleonics laboratory in the stern room had been inundated by the wave of bilgewater . After a while , the leading ELT found the necessary reagents and analyzed samples from both steam generators on the top hat in reactor compartment upper level . By this time the boat was in direct communication with Naval Reactors , which ordered the reactor shut down and cooled down and steam generators drained and refilled . The emergency diesel generator , located in engineroom lower level , initially had water in the generator from the incident but it was drained and the diesel was online before the reactor was shut down . The reactor was cooled down and steam generators were blown down with service air and refilled until all fresh water on the boat was exhausted , which was a couple of hours before arriving back in Pearl Harbor . Subsequent analysis of steam generator water revealed no leakage of reactor coolant into the steam generators . Three of the boat ' s four air conditioning compressors were shut down as part of the rig for reduced electrical . The temperature in the ship exceeded 80 °F ( 27C ) with near 100 % humidity for the several hours required for a tug to be dispatched from Pearl Harbor and tow " Swordfish " home . The tug , arrived the next morning and began the tow around noon , arriving back in Pearl Harbor just after midnight . The actions of the Chief of the Watch and the Engineer saved " Swordfish " and her crew . The boat spent the rest of 1985 in port making repairs and returned to sea in January , 1986 , making a successful deployment to the western Pacific later in 1986 . Retirement . " Swordfish " was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on 2 June 1989 . Her disposal through the Ship - Submarine Recycling Program ( SRP ) was completed at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 11 September 1995 . " Swordfish " earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal , two Meritorious Unit Commendation s , two Navy " E " s , eight Navy Unit Commendation s , four Vietnam Service Medal s , and a number of classified awards . Russia has repeatedly requested copies of " Swordfish " ' s logs to trace her at the time " K - 129 " was lost , but t he Pentagon refuses to release them ; " Swordfish " was involved in highly sensitive operations at that time . The United States has salvaged some parts of " K - 129 " , and has provided the Russian government with a videotape of a burial - at - sea ceremony for six crew members whose remains were recovered when " Hughes Glomar Explorer " recovered parts of " K - 129 " in 1974 .