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This
Historical Overview
has been compiled from many sources, including the
welcome aboard pamphlets available after commissioning and the Mare Island
overhaul.
The USS Robert E. Lee was the third nuclear-powered fleet
ballistic missile submarine to join the fleet. She started life as a Fast Attack and 26
years later, she ended her service by once more becoming a Fast Attack (click here to see her final days page). Her keel was laid on
Shipway 5 Aug. 25, 1958, less than a month after her contract was signed on July 30.
She was to become the USS Shark (SSN-591), Newport News Shipyard Hull No 545, as one of
the boats in the modified Skipjack class (SSN-585) design. Although the contract for
Shark had been awarded almost 18 months earlier than that of Robert E. Lee, the Polaris
program had priority, so the Lee was completed first. Robert E. Lee and her four sisters
in the George Washington Class (SSBN-598) that were built at other shipyards all started
as a modified Skipjack-class design with a 130-foot missile section containing 16 Polaris
tubes added amidships. Like the others in the 598 Class, the Lee's construction was
expedited and she was launched on Dec. 18, 1959.
The Lee is the first U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of the
famous confederate general and the first nuclear
submarine to have been built in the South. She was the first nuclear ship to be built at
the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. The christening ceremony for Robert E.
Lee was a festive one in tradition of the Old South, and Gen. Lee’s granddaughter
Mrs. Hanson E. Ely, JR., served as sponsor. Robert E. Lee fired a water salvo from
her missile tubes during the launching of Enterprise (CVAN-65) and completed highly
successful sea trials before being commissioned at the shipyard. Another descendent
of General Lee, Vice Admiral Fitzhugh Lee, USN, was the principal speaker when the ship
was commissioned on September 16, 1960.
Commissioning commanding officers were CDR
Ruben F. Woodall, USN
(Blue Crew) and CDR Joe Williams, Jr., USN (Gold Crew). After conducting sixteen Polaris
deterrent patrols, Robert E Lee was overhauled in 1965 and 1966 by the San Francisco Bay
Naval Shipyard. During this overhaul, the nuclear reactor was refueled, many ship's
systems where re-engineered to provide greater safety of operation and reliability, and
the weapons system was modified to give the ship the capability of firing the A-3 Polaris
missile.
The Ship was longer than a football field, taller than a
five-story building, and more than three times as heavy as the fleet-type submarines which
played a significant role in the Pacific in World War II. She carries a crew of 124
enlisted men and 13 officers. The air conditioning and atmosphere control equipment
maintain the air within the ship at optimum temperature, relative humidity and composition
for the comfort of the crew on prolonged submerged operations. The capacity of the sea
water distilling unites is more than adequate to provide makeup water for the propulsion
plant, the requirements of the galley and scullery, and a shower a day for every man on
board.
The Missile. ROBERT E. LEE was
originally built to carry sixteen of the 1200-mile A-1 Polaris missiles. The launcher and
fire control system were later modified to shoot the more sophisticated 2500-mile A-3
Polaris missile. The A-3 missile was 31 feet long and 54 inches in diameter and carried a
nuclear warhead. It was a two-stage, solid propellant ballistic missile which employed an
inertial guidance system to steer the missile to the target. The missiles could be fired
from the surface or submerged. The destructive power of the sixteen A-3 missiles carried
by the ROBERT E. LEE was greater than all the bombs dropped during World War II. It was
this tremendous potential for destruction which made the Polaris Weapons System the
credible deterrent to aggression that it was.
The Nuclear Reactor. The heart of
the propulsion system of ROBERT E. LEE was its nuclear reactor. The reactor was of the
pressurized water design in which the energy released by nuclear fission heated the highly
purified water in the primary coolant system. The primary coolant then transferred its
heat to the secondary water which formed the steam used in the propulsion turbines and the
ship’s turbo-generators. Nuclear propulsion enabled ROBERT E. LEE to steam
indefinitely at high speeds, completely submerged.
Navigation. Two positions must be
known accurately for a successful missile launching - the position of the target and the
position of the launcher. Since the launcher was in the ship which was constantly in
motion, determining the position of the ship continuously and accurately was a formidable
task. Several methods were used to complement each other on the ROBERT E. LEE to provide a
high order of accuracy in determining the ship’s position. The heart of the system
was the Ship’s Inertial Navigation Systems (SINS), a complex arrangement of
gyro-scopes and accelerometers, which sensed ship motions in all directions and kept track
of true north. Ship’s position was continuously available from SINS.
Like other Polaris ships she was operated with two crews in
alternating 60-day patrols. During the early years, the two crews conducted alternate
patrols from Holy Loch in Scotland. Between Polaris patrols there was a period
alongside a submarine tender for upkeep, repair and maintenance. While one crew was on the
ship on patrol or in Holy Loch, the other crew was on leave or making preparations back in
New London, Connecticut (the original homeport) for the next patrol.
Robert E. Lee fired her first missile off Cape Canaveral in
December 1960, and underwent her post shake-down availability at Newport News in February
1961. She was assigned to Submarine Squadron 14 operating out of Holy Loch, Scotland, in
July and commenced the first of many deterrent patrols on Aug. 9. During her career Robert
E. Lee completed 55 such patrols on both sides of the globe. She underwent her first
refueling overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1965-1966 and was modified for the
improved Polaris A-3 system. She continued with Squadron 14 and completed her 33rd patrol
before her second refueling at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 1971. She operated on the
East Coast until late 1973, then was transferred to the Pacific, arriving at Guam in
October. Robert E. Lee underwent her third refueling at Mare Island in 1977 but was not
converted to the Poseidon missile system because of her age. With the arrival of the first
Trident missile submarines in 1981 and 1982, Robert E. Lee’s days were numbered. She
completed her 55th and the US Navy's final Polaris patrol on Oct. 1, 1981, marking the end
of a fleet total of 1,245 patrols and over 24,000 man-years at sea with the Polaris
system. She was redesignated SSN-601 on March 1, 1982, then operated on the West Cost as
an attack submarine with a consolidated crew for the next year. In February 1983, Robert
E. Lee entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for inactivation. Her reactor was defueled, her
missile section was removed, and she was decommissioned at Bremerton, WA, on Nov. 30,
1983, in a ceremony held aboard Missouri (BB-63). Robert E. Lee was then laid up there
awaiting disposal after defending her country for over 20 years.
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Compiled from "Dictionary of American Fighting Ships,"
Various pamphlets (Commissioning and Mare Island overhaul Welcome Aboard)
and "U.S. NAVAL SUBMARINE FORCE INFORMATION BOOK '98" -- J. Christley
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