USS Blueback (SS-581)

USS Blueback (SS-581)

USS Blueback (SS-581) is a decommissioned Barbel-class submarine formerly in the United States Navy. She was the second Navy submarine named for a form of the rainbow or steelhead trout found only in Lake Crescent on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The fish lives in deep water and is bluish black along its upper sides and whitish underneath.

Blueback was laid down by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi on 15 April 1957. She was launched on 16 May 1959 sponsored by Mrs. Kenmore McManes, wife of Rear Admiral McManes, and commissioned on 15 October 1959, Lieutenant Commander Robert H. Gautier in command. She was the last non-nuclear submarine to join the United States Navy and was the final conventionally powered submarine to be decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy with a fully nuclear submarine fleet.