USS Gudgeon ( SS - 567 ) USS " Gudgeon " ( SS / AGSS / SSAG - 567 ) , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the gudgeon , a species of small fresh - water minnow . Construction and commissioning . Her keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine . She was launched on 11 June 1952 sponsored by Mrs . Robert A . Bonin , widow of the first " Gudgeon " ' s last commanding officer , and commissioned on 21 November 1952 with Commander Robert M . Carroll in command . Service record . After builders ' trials , " Gudgeon " sailed for Pearl Harbor , where she joined Submarine Squadron 1 ( SubRon 1 ) , Submarine Division 1 ( SubDiv 1 ) , 18 July 1953 . Local operations and training exercises continued until 11 April 1954 , when " Gudgeon " sailed to the mainland for antisubmarine warfare ( ASW ) exercises along the Washington coast . A Mare Island Naval Shipyard overhaul occupied the remainder of the year , and " Gudgeon " returned to Pearl Harbor 9 March 1955 . She sailed 21 Jul 1955 , for the first of five WestPac tours , visiting Yokosuka , Formosa , Hong Kong , Manila , and Guam before returning to Pearl Harbor on 30 January 1956 . Local operations out of the Hawaiian port , overhaul , special secret operations , and a second trip to the West Coast took " Gudgeon " through the next 18 months . Sailing from Pearl Harbor on 8 July 1957 , " Gudgeon " began a history - making cruise around the world , making the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force ' s flagship the first American submarine to circumnavigate the globe . After exercises at Yokosuka , " Gudgeon " sailed west 26 August 1957 . As she made her way around the world for the next six months , the submarine docked at Asian , African and European ports before a triumphal entry into Pearl Harbor 21 February 1958 , eight months and 25 , 000 miles ( 40 , 000 km ) since taking departure . First conversion . After extensive overhaul , " Gudgeon " again settled into the peacetime local and special operations , training exercises , and ASW activities . Three WestPac cruises , in 1959 , 1961 , and 1963 , took her to Japan for exercises with the Seventh Fleet as well as to Subic Bay and Hong Kong for liberty . The alternate years , 1960 and 1962 , saw " Gudgeon " heading back to the mainland , where she trained and exercised along the Washington and California coasts . Second conversion . " Gudgeon " returned from the Far East to Pearl Harbor 1 August 1963 , and for the next two years operated in Hawaiian waters . She departed Pearl Harbor 29 November and arrived San Francisco , California , on 9 December for overhaul at Mare Island . The ship was cut in half and an 18 - foot ( 5 meter ) section was added during a conversion which gave the submarine new and larger engines as well as the PUFFS passive sonar installation . Modernization was completed in April 1967 and " Gudgeon " returned to duty in the Pacific Fleet . " Gudgeon " was reclassified an Auxiliary Research Submarine , AGSS - 567 , and then a Guided Missile Auxiliary Submarine , SSAG - 567 , 5 November 1979 . " Gudgeon " served in the Pacific until she was decommissioned on 30 September 1983 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 6 August 1987 . August 1957 Vladivostok Soviet Incident . In August 1957 , USS GUDGEON was located close to the entrance of the Soviets ' largest naval base on the Pacific , Vladivostok . Its goal was to monitor Soviet ship movements through its periscope and intercept their radio communications . Suddenly , an alert rang out on Soviet radio channels , and as many as eight destroyers began steaming toward the area where GUDGEON was hiding . GUDGEON turned , its 90 officers and enlisted men rushing to take battle stations and load torpedoes into its eight tubes , and sprinted for the open sea , with the bigger , faster Soviet surface vessels in avid pursuit . As the sub approached , or just after it sped past the imaginary 12 - mile line , its skipper , Norman B . " Buzz " Bessac , a 34 - year - old Lieutenant Commander , ordered the boat brought to a full stop , hoping it could " go quiet and lose " its pursuers , crew members said . But the ploy failed . As GUDGEON tried to hide below perhaps 200 feet of water , Bessac instructed his men to get ready for what seemed likely to be a long , frightening and lonely siege , the crew members said . When a diesel submarine is forced to stay underwater , it depends entirely on power from its electric battery previously charged by the diesel to circulate air , operate interior lights , heat food and provide bursts of speed for a possible getaway , and life aboard becomes much more precarious . The snorkel sucks in air needed to operate the boat ' s diesel engines and to refresh the air that its crew breathers . Diesel subs normally snorkel every night . In GUDGEON ' s case , the menacing presence of the Soviet destroyers meant that the sub would be unable to go up to periscope depth , about 60 feet below the surface , and snorkel that night . The boat also could not send any kind of plea for help without rising enough to pierce the surface with its radio antenna . So Bessac ordered that every precaution be taken to preserve electricity and air , the crew members said . Fans and blowers that pushed air around the submarine were turned off . Lights were trimmed to a dim , candle - like glow . Crystals of lithium hydroxide , a chemical that absorbs the carbon dioxide exhaled by the crew , were sprinkled on cloth mattress covers laid out in various compartments . Bessac instructed all non - essential crew members to stay in their bunks . Despite the rising tension , GUDGEON ' s officers forbade cigarette smoking , which give off carbon monoxide . As the hold down stretched through that night , the whole next day and well into a second night , the sub ' s air got so thick and foul that many of the men developed severe headaches . Every hour or two , one of the destroyers would bounce active sonar off GUDGEON ' s 290 - foot - long hull , creating chilling metallic " pings " that resounded inside the sub and in the minds of its crew members . The destroyer then would steam over the top of the sub - marine and drop a wave of depth charges that detonated above or around it . " They would circle , and one of them would make a run and drop " its depth charges , one GUDGEON crew member said . " Then they ' d go back out and pick up again ( on sonar ) , and somebody else would come in and make a run . One crew member said GUDGEON ' s officers decided after the first wave of explosions failed to cause serious damage that the destroyers probably had dropped small , practice - sized depth charges similar to hand grenades instead of full - power charges like those that sank scores of submarines in WWII . The grenade - like charges make a terrifying noise that splinters the water like a jackhammer ripping through concrete , but they are unlikely to cause much damage to the thick steel hull of a submarine . At one point , GUDGEON tried to elude the gauntlet of destroyers by shooting a noise - making decoy out of its garbage ejection tube in one direction while it moved in another , one crew member said . Another time , he said , the sub went below its " test depth " of 700 feet or so in a vain attempt to escape the reach of the Soviet ' s sonar . Finally , after more than 30 hours under Soviet control , the sub ' s battery had gotten so weak , and its air so horrid , a new fear took hold among its crew : If GUDGEON had to surface in the midst of the destroyers , would the Soviets try to board it and capture the crew ? With this possibility in mind , some of the officers and intelligence operatives on board hastily destroyed a number of classified documents , one crew member recalled . During the hold down , a few of the Soviet destroyers had broken off from the pack and sailed back toward the port . So Bessac , who had decided he would fight rather than allow the sub to be boarded , tried one last stratagem , crew members said . He ordered the crew in the Control Room to bring the sub to periscope depth , where it quickly raised its radio antenna and shot off a message to U . S . 7th Fleet headquarters in Japan asking for assistance . The sub also stuck up its snorkel mast to try to gulp some fresh air , but a Soviet vessel raced straight toward the pipe , as if to ram it , and " drove us back under , " one of GUDGEON ' s crew members said . At this point , Bessac had no choice but to risk bringing GUDGEON fully to the surface . As the sub rose slowly through the water , Bessac made sure that the doors to its torpedo tubes were open , the last action needed to ensure that the torpedoes could be fired at the push of a button , crew members said . After the sub broke the surface , Bessac clambered up the ladder inside the sub ' s sail and onto the bridge , where he instructed a signalman to point the light at one of the Soviet ships out in the night and blink a message in Morse code . The staccato light beams identified GUDGEON as a U . S . Navy warship and asserted its right to be in what its crew believed were international waters . A few minutes later , the Soviets flashed back a message that was comforting , though somewhat gloating , in its simple statement of the obvious . These blinking lights identified the GUDGEON ' s adversary as " CCCP , " and suggested the sub head for home without delay . The Soviet ships then parted their ring around GUDGEON and allowed it to set sail . A few hours later , U . S . warplanes passed overhead and could see that GUDGEON had survived the ordeal . TCG " Hızırreis " ( S 342 ) . In 1983 , " Gudgeon " was transferred by lease to Turkey and renamed TCG HIZIRREİS ( S 342 ) . She was purchased in 1987 and served until 2004 . She is berthed as a museum ship at the Kocaeli Museum Ships Command and is open to the public .