USS Hawkbill (SSN-666)

USS Hawkbill (SSN-666)

USS Hawkbill (SSN-666), a Sturgeon-class attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the hawksbill, a large sea turtle. The name perpetuated the inadvertent misspelling of "hawksbill" in the naming of the first ship of the name, USS Hawkbill (SS-366).

Hawkbill was sometimes called "The Devil Boat" or the "Devilfish" because of her hull number (666); chapter 13 of the Bible's Book of Revelation, which begins "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea...." and ends "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six;" and the resulting association in Christianity of the number 666 with the Devil and the Antichrist.