24. Triton served the US Navy for 9 years
USS Triton, famed for its circumnavigation, was rendered obsolete as a radar picket with the introduction of Airborne Early-Warning Aircraft which operated directly from aircraft carriers. After only two years of service, Triton was out of a job. It was too large for many of the covert operations conducted by the Navy during the Cold War, as well as somewhat noisy. In 1962, it was converted to an attack submarine, a mission for which its design was unsuited. Due to being refueled in 1969 – an expensive undertaking given its twin reactors – it was instead decommissioned and placed in storage in St. Julien’s Creek, Portsmouth, Virginia. It remained there until 1993.
The ship was recycled beginning in 2007, at Puget Sound, a process which was completed in 2009. Only the sail of the submarine exists today, part of a memorial park in Richland, Washington. Captain Edward L. Beach retired from the Navy in 1966. He wrote numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction, and published articles in magazines of both entertainment and technical natures. His narrative of the circumnavigation, which is available online, was called by the book critic at The New York Times “a literary product in its own right rivals in spots the suspense and drama of an adventure from the pages of Captain Hornblower”.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The ABC’s of Stress: A Submarine Psychologists Perspective”. Dr. Benjamin B. Weybrew. 1992
“Beneath the Waves: The Life and Navy of Capt. Edward L. Beach Jr.” Edward F. Finch. 2010
“USS Triton SSRN 586 First Submerged Circumnavigation 1960”. Capt. Edward L. Beach. 1960. Online
“Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton”. Capt. Edward L. Beach. 1962. Online
“SSN-586 Triton”. Article, Global Security. Online
“The Modern Magellans”. Article, The New York Times. May 13, 1960
“A Letter From the Commanding Officer of USS Triton”. Capt. Edward L. Beach, Proceedings. July 1960