NAVYPEDIA

Photo

Barbel 1979

Ships

No	Name	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comm	Fate
SS580	Barbel		Portsmouth N Yd	18.5.1956	19.7.1958	17.1.1959	stricken 1.1990
SS581	Blueback	1041	Ingalls, Pascagoula	15.4.1957	16.5.1959	15.10.1959	stricken 10.1990
SS582	Bonefish	515	New York SB, Camden	3.6.1957	22.11.1958	9.7.1959	fire 24.3.1988, stricken 28.2.1989

Technical data

Displacement standard, t
Displacement normal, t	2146 / 2639
Length, m	66.8
Breadth, m	8.80
Draught, m	6.30
No of shafts	1
Machinery	3 Fairbank Morse diesel-generators, 1 Westinghouse electric motor
Power, h. p.	3150 / 4700
Max speed, kts	14 / 18.5
Fuel, t	diesel oil
Endurance, nm(kts)	14000(10) / 306(3)
Armament	6 - 533 Mk 58 TT (bow, 22)
Electronic equipment	BPS-12 radar, BQS-4, BQR-2 sonars, BLR-1 ECM suite
Complement	77
Diving depth operational, m	210

Standard scale images

Graphics

Project history

These submarines, the last US diesel-electric types built, adopted the streamlined hull form of the experimental Albacore to achieve high underwater speed, albeit for only relatively short periods. Stern torpedo tubes had to be eliminated because of the adoption of a single propeller shaft. As built, they had conventional bow diving planes, but they were later modified with planes in their fin structures. They were the first US submarines with all controls centralized in an 'attack center', a practice adopted for all later classes.

Unlike earlier diesel submarines. they were not refitted with PUFFs passive fire control gear, perhaps because the three large sonar domes involved would have ruined streamlining. They differ from Albacore-shaped nuclear submarines in that they retain a substantial casing with a noticeable free-flooding slot running most of its length.

Modernizations

1960s, all: - BLR-1 ECM suite; + WLR-1 ECM suite

Naval service

Bonefish was stricken following a serious fire (three fatalities), on 24 March 1988 in 160nm off Atlantic coast of Florida.