USS ''Gudgeon'' (SS/AGSS/SSAG-567), a , was the second ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to be named for the

gudgeon A gudgeon is a socket-like, cylindrical (i.e., ''female'') fitting attached to one component to enable a pivoting or hinging connection to a second component. The second component carries a pintle fitting, the male counterpart to the gudgeon, ...

, a species of small fresh-water minnow.

Construction and commissioning

The submarine's keel was laid by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in

Kittery, Maine Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town in t ...

. It 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. Gudgeon was the first American submarine to circumnavigate the globe; the navigator aboard this history making voyage was Lt. Leon Leroy Stine Jr., who died on January 30, 2018.

Service record

After builders' trials, ''Gudgeon'' sailed for

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, where it 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 Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are typic ...

(ASW) exercises along the

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

coast. A

Mare Island Naval Shipyard The Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY) was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates th ...

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 Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, and

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

before returning to Pearl Harbor on 30 January 1956. Local operations out of the

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

an port, overhaul, special secret operations, and a second voyage to the West Coast took ''Gudgeon'' through the next 18 months. Sailing from

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 it 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. During August 1957, after being detected by the Soviet Navy outside the port of

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

, outside the 3-mile territorial waters limit recognized by the US but well inside the 12-mile limit claimed by the Soviets, the ''Gudgeon'' was the first US submarine forced to the surface during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

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 it to Japan for exercises with the Seventh Fleet as well as to the US naval base at Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands and

for liberty. During the alternate years, 1960 and 1962, ''Gudgeon'' was reassigned to mainland waters, training and exercising along the

and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

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. It departed Pearl Harbor 29 November and arrived

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, 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 Passive Underwater Fire Control Feasibility System ( PUFFS) passive sonar installation. Modernization was completed during April 1967 and ''Gudgeon'' returned to duty in the Pacific Fleet. :'' 967-1983' ''Gudgeon'' was reclassified a miscellaneous auxiliary submarine, AGSS-567 and later SSAG-567 during November 1979. ''Gudgeon'' served in the Pacific until it was decommissioned on 30 September 1983 and eliminated from the Naval Vessel Register on 6 August 1987.

Awards

China Service Medal * National Defense Service Medal with star (2 awards) *

Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal * Vietnam Service Medal with two

campaign stars A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

for

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

service

TCG ''Hızırreis'' (S 342)

During 1983, ''Gudgeon'' was transferred by lease to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and renamed TCG ''Hızırreis'' (S 342), named for Ottoman Admiral

Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis was an Ottoman admiral who is best known for commanding the Ottoman naval expedition to Sumatra in Indonesia (1568–1569). Background and family origins Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis was the son of the famous Turkish privatee ...

. It was purchased in 1987, served until 2004, and is presently berthed as a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

at the Kocaeli Museum Ships Command Kocaeli Museum Ships Command
in Izmit and is open to the public.

References

External links

navsource.org: USS ''Gudgeon''
additional photographs of the USS ''Gudgeon'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gudgeon (SS-567) United States Tang-class submarines Ships built in Kittery, Maine 1952 ships Cold War submarines of the United States Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the Turkish Navy United States Tang-class submarines of the Turkish Navy Museum ships in Turkey Buildings and structures in İzmit Museums in Kocaeli Province