USS ''Halfbeak'' (SS-352), a

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

, was a ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

named for the

halfbeak Hemiramphidae is a family (biology), family of fishes that are commonly called halfbeaks, spipe fish or spipefish. They are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. ...

Construction and commissioning

''Halfbeak'' was launched 19 February 1946 by the

Electric Boat Company Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

at Groton,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, sponsored by Mrs. William Craig, and commissioned on 22 July 1946.

Service history

After shakedown in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and along the

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n coast to the

Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone (), also known as just the Canal Zone, was a concession of the United States located in the Isthmus of Panama that existed from 1903 to 1979. It consisted of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending on each side o ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, ''Halfbeak'' spent the next 3 years in training operations and fleet exercises out of New London, Conn., where she was part of SubRon 8. Entering the

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS), often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine, bordering Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The naval yard lies along the southern boundary of Maine on ...

12 September 1949, ''Halfbeak'' was converted to a

GUPPY II The Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) was initiated by the United States Navy after World War II to improve the submerged speed, maneuverability, and endurance of its submarines. (The "Y" in the acronym was added for pronouncea ...

type submarine. Fitted with a snorkel to enable her to stay submerged for long periods of time and distinguished by a greatly streamlined superstructure, ''Halfbeak'' left Portsmouth 13 January 1950 to work with the Research and Development Group at New London. While conducting tests on special underwater sound equipment, she made a cruise to

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

waters, operating off

Jan Mayen Island Jan Mayen () is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger no ...

, in the winter of 1951. ''Halfbeak'' was engaged in further Caribbean exercises until 10 November 1954, when she sailed for her first

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

cruise. Having visited

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Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

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Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, and

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

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, the submarine returned to New London 2 February 1955. A similar cruise in 1956 was punctuated by the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

, and ''Halfbeak'' remained in the eastern Med operating with the 6th Fleet until January 1957 helping to maintain the peace in that crucial region. Her duties took another turn as 28 July 1958 she departed for the Arctic, where with the nuclear submarine she operated under and around the polar

ice pack An ice pack or gel pack is a portable bag filled with water, refrigerant gel, or liquid, meant to provide cooling. They can be divided into the reusable type, which works as a thermal mass and requires freezing, or the instant type, which coo ...

to gather information in connection with the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

. During these operations, ''Skate'' sailed under the Arctic ice pack to reach the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

11 August and continued to cruise freely there repeating the visit 6 days later. Local operations and exercises, primarily submarine and fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean but also

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

maneuvers, occupied ''Halfbeak'' until 1963, when she resumed her role testing and evaluating sonar and other underwater sound equipment out of New London.

James Bamford James Bamford (born September 15, 1946) is an American author, journalist and documentary producer noted for his writing about United States intelligence agencies, especially the National Security Agency (NSA). ''The New York Times'' has calle ...

Body of Secrets ''Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency'' is a book by James Bamford about the NSA and its operations. It also covers the history of espionage in the United States from uses of the Fulton surface-to-air recovery ...

claims that around September 1965, ''Halfbeak'' conducted for the NSA a classified

SIGINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

mission off the Kola Peninsula . She was detected by Soviet forces, and had to hide for many hours below its maximum permissible depth before escaping. These events were omitted from the official ship's history. ''Halfbeak'' was awarded the Battle Efficiency "E" for 1966 and 1967 and held the "E" for Submarine Division 102 for 1968. ''Halfbeak'' was decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the

Naval Register A Navy Directory, Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a co ...

, 1 July 1971. She was sold for scrapping, 13 July 1972.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Halfbeak (SS-352) Balao-class submarines Cold War submarines of the United States Ships built in Groton, Connecticut 1946 ships