USS Simon Lake AS 33

Association

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President, Chief John Craig, USNR (Ret) AS33 72 - 74 HT2

Vice President, PO2 Virgil Hollender, USN Veteran AS33 70 - 72 DP2

Secretary/Treasurer, Cmdr. Dan Poole, USN (Ret) AS33 66 - 68 DC3

THE SHIP

USS SIMON LAKE (AS 33)
SUBMARINE TENDER

Builder: U.S. Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound, Bremerton, Washington

Contract Award Date: 08/08/1962
Keel Laid: 01/07/1963

Sponsors: Mrs. H. Diamond & Mrs. Cecil Ford

Launch Date: 02/08/1964
Commission Date: 11/07/1964

Delivery Date: 01/15/1965
Decommission Date: 07/31/1999
Years From Commission To Decommission: 34.7
Age (Launch to February, 2019): 55
Status: Removed from Ready Reserve to Stricken. Disposed of 02/27/2019

PHYSICAL STATISTICS
Overall Length: 644 Ft
Water Line Length: 620 Ft
Extreme Beam: 85 Ft
Maximum Navigational Draft: 27 Ft
Draft Limit: 30 Ft
Light Displacement: 13797 Tons
Full Displacement: 20038 Tons
Dead Weight: 6291 Tons
Hull Material: Steel hull, steel superstructure.
Number of Propellers: 1
Propulsion Type: Steam Turbine (20,000 Shaft Horse Power)
Armament: Four 20 mm guns; Two 40 mm guns; two .50 caliber machine guns; two twin 3"-50 gun mounts located port and starboard of the rear stack, just forward of the helicopter deck The ship had storage tubes for 16 Submarine-launched Ballistic Missiles (Polaris).
Accommodations:
Officers: 64
Enlisted: 1133

USS Simon Lake is named after Simon Lake, a distinguished marine engineer who played a major part in the development of the submarine as a practical device. In 1886-1887, he built the Argonaut, the first submarine to operate successfully in the open sea. A successful voyage which he made in his vessel from Norfolk, Virginia to New York City in 1898 (both submerged and surfaced) drew from Jules Verne in 1899 a prediction that submarines would become an important factor in the next war. Simon Lake developed his submarine torpedo boats, but he also predicted that submarines would be used for commercial purposes, such as locating sunken ships, navigating Northern waters, and making the passage above Russia from England to the Pacific. Simon Lake died on June 23, 1945, after being able to see what submarine forces could accomplish in full-scale war.

USS Simon Lake Now-- Stricken and disposed of: Dismantled at Steelcoast, Brownsville, TX

Status Changed: August, 2019