USS Bonefish (SS-582): History, Patrols, Crews

Commissioning

The USS Bonefish was a member of the Barbel-class of submarines. She was the second submarine in U.S. Navy history named after the fish. The first Bonefish, SS-223, completed seven tours during World War II before being lost in combat on June 30, 1945.

The contract to build the Bonefish was awarded to the New York Shipbuilding Corp. of Camden, N.J., on June 29, 1956. Her keel was laid down on June 3, 1957; she was launched on Nov. 22, 1958 and was sponsored by the widow of Commander Lawrence Edge, the commander of the first USS Bonefish when it was lost. The second Bonefish was commission on July 9, 1959, with Lt. Commander Elmer H. Kiehl in command.

Underway

Assigned to Submarine Division 33 of the Pacific Fleet, the Bonefish was homeported at San Diego. On Sept. 16, 1960, she made her first deployment to the Western Pacific. She took part in exercises with other members of the 7th Fleet and made ports of call in Japan, the Philippines, the Marianas and Hong Kong before returning to San Diego on March 13, 1961.

In May 1962, the Bonefish made her second Western Pacific deployment, which ended in December. In February 1963, she was transferred to a new homeport of Pearl Harbor. She made a two-month cruise to the Western Pacific in the summer of 1963 and a six-month deployment from January to July 1964 before entering the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for an overhaul.

The overhaul lasted into 1965, after which the Bonefish remained in the waters around Hawaii for the rest of the year. In April 1966, she deployed to the Western Pacific once more, operating in the Far East for seven months-two of which were spent in the Gulf of Tonkin as part of the U.S. fleet involved in the Vietnam War. She returned to the region in April 1967, serving another stint in the Gulf of Tonkin and making ports of call in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan before returning to Pearl Harbor in April 1968.

Another overhaul kept the Bonefish out of action until November 1969, when she returned to the Western Pacific for a seven-month deployment that ended in June 1970. She received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for her performance during that cruise. Another Western Pacific deployment began in February 1971 and included another stint in the Gulf of Tonkin. She returned to Pearl Harbor on Aug. 10.

In February 1972, she began another regular overhaul that lasted into 1973. The overhaul was extended by another four months when a snorkel piping system failed during sea trials in March 1973. In May 1974, she started another deployment to the Far East that lasted until November. Her next Western Pacific cruise began on Dec. 6, 1975 and included exercises with the navies of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan before returning to Hawaii on May 15. On July 26, she entered drydock for another overhaul, which lasted until June 25, 1977.

In November 1977, the Bonefish left Pearl Harbor for her new homeport of San Diego. She arrived there on Nov. 18 and operated off the west coast of the U.S. until May 1978, when her next deployment to the West Pacific began. That cruise ended in October and she spent the rest of 1978 and the first half of 1979 in and around San Diego. On June 1, 1979, she began a UNITAS exercise and circumnavigation of South America, which included ports of call at Trinidad; Tobago; Curacao; Columbia; Venezuela; the Netherlands Antilles; Ecuador; Peru and Chile.

After another deployment to the Far East between December 1980 and July 1981, the Bonefish was ordered to Charleston, S.C. in June 1982. In August, she deployed to the North Atlantic, making ports of call in Germany and England before returning to Charleston in early October.
On April 24, 1988, the Bonefish was operating submerged 160 miles off the coast of Florida when seawater began leaking onto cables and electrical busses in a battery supply cableway. Electrical arcing between cables caused an explosion and intense fire. The Bonefish quickly surfaced and the crew was ordered to abandon ship. Though the fire was eventually extinguished, three crew members were killed and the submarine was deemed too damaged to be repaired.

Decommissioning

The Bonefish was decommissioned on Sept. 28, 1988 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on Feb. 28, 1989. She was scrapped on Aug. 17, 1989.

Characteristics of the USS Bonefish

Class and type: Barbel-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement: 1,744 tons (1,778 t) light [1]
2,146 tons (2,180 t) full
2,637 tons (2,679 t) submerged [1]
402 tons (408 t) dead
Length: 219 ft 6 in (66.9 m) overall [1]
Beam: 29 ft (8.8 m) [1]
Draft: 25 ft (7.6 m) max [1]
Propulsion: Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, total 4,800 bhp (3.6 MW)
2 × General Electric electric motors, total 3,150 bhp (2.3 MW)
one screw [1] Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h) surfaced
25 knots (46 km/h) submerged [1]
Endurance: 30 minutes at full speed
102 hours at 3 knots
Test depth: 712 ft (217 m) operating
1,050 ft (320 m) collapse
Complement: 10 officers, 69 men
Armament: 6 × 21 in (533 mm) [1] bow torpedo tubes, 18 torpedoes

Career:

Awarded: 29 June 1956
Builder: New York Shipbuilding, Camden, New Jersey [1]
Laid down: 3 June 1957 [1]
Launched: 22 November 1958 [1]
Commissioned: 9 July 1959 [1]
Decommissioned: 28 September 1988
Struck: 28 February 1989 [1]
Fate: Sold for scrap, 17 August 1989

Timeline:

June 1956: USS Bonefish ordered
June 1957: USS Bonefish's keel laid down
November 1958: USS Bonefish launched
July 1959: USS Bonefish commissioned
September 1960: USS Bonefish makes first Western Pacific deployment
1966: USS Bonefish makes first deployment to the Gulf of Tonkin
November 1977: USS Bonefish's homeport moved to San Diego
June 1982: USS Bonefish transferred to Charleston, S.C.
April 1988: USS Bonefish suffers fatal fire while at sea

Crewmembers of the USS Bonefish:

An unofficial list of crew members that served on the USS Bonefish can be found on the unofficial navy website at: http://navysite.de. This list is compiled by former crewmembers that voluntarily register. Some quoted comments from former crewmembers are listed below; many more are available on the source website at the following Web address:
http://navysite.de/ss/ss582.htm

Frank Cranovale (served June 1973-December 1975): "We stunk like burnt deisel fuel, worked like rented mules, danced delicately with the devil, laughed like lunatics, drank like parched desert sand, submerged, shot torpedoes, surfaced and howled at the world, we were pig boat people."
Kent Weekly (served 1974-76): "Came on in March 1974 served for almost 2 1/2 years made 2 Westpacs. Great times and Great people. Will always remember the ship's party at the Nancy's Harbor Hotel in Kaohshung."
Calvin Clark (served 1974-76): "The greatest crew that you could ever want to be associated with. We worked hard, we played hard! Everyone was at least a friend. What an experience I will never forget. Took me a year to wash out the smell."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bonefish_(SS-582)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08582.htm

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