About the USS Providence SSN-719

 

                       

 

                SSN-719 sliding down the ways at                                    USS Providence is met by the tugboat C-Tractor at

                Electric Boat, 14 October 1984.                                       the entrance to the Thames River in New London, CT.

 

USS Providence (SSN-719), a Los Angeles-class submarine, was the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Providence, Rhode Island. The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 16 April 1979 and her keel was laid down on 14 October 1982. She was launched on 4 August 1984 sponsored by Mrs. William F. Smith, and commissioned on 27 July 1985, with Captain E. Morrow in command.

 

Providence is the first Los Angeles class submarine to be equipped with the Tomahawk missile Vertical Launch System (VLS).

 

                                    

 

                                A 688-class submarine launches a Tomahawk                                             A Tomahawk cruise missile is launched from

                                cruise missile while submerged.                                                                     USS Providence during the opening days of

                                                                                                                                                                                Operation Iraqi Freedom.

 

Providence has been deployed numerous times to various regions around the globe, including the Western Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Some of the ports the boat has visited have included Port Canaveral (Cocoa Beach, Florida) and Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico (which for a time in the late 1990’s was visited so often the crew started referring to Roosey Roads as their “Southern Homeport”), Tromsø in Norway, Gibraltar, Rota and Cartagena, Spain, Toulon in France, La Maddalena, Italy and Soudha Bay, Crete in the Mediterranean and Manama, Bahrain, and both Dubai and Jebel'Ali in the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf. The submarine has made transits of the Suez Canal in 1998, 2001 and 2003 and participated in Operation Southern Watch, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, where she earned the nickname "Big Dog of the Red Sea Wolf Pack."

 

                       

 

                                                Operation Iraqi Freedom – April 2003

                                The submarine tender USS Emory S. Land AS-39 moored at Soudha

                                Bay, Crete.  Moored alongside the Land are (from left to right)

                                USS Boise SSN-764, USS Newport News SSN-750, USS San Juan

                                SSN-751 and USS Providence SSN-719, the Red Sea Wolf Pack.

 

Providence has also undergone two major overhauls, the first in Charleston, South Carolina in 1993-1994 and more recently in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME from late 2003 until 2005, the first 688-class submarine to undergo an Engineered Overhaul (EOH).

 

USS Providence SSN-719 has been awarded 3 Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals, 3 Navy Expeditionary Medals, 4 Meritorious Unit Commendations, 4 Naval Unit Commendations and 5 Battle E awards, and most recently the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals.

 

The Providence is currently assigned to Submarine Squadron 4 and homeported at US Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, CT.

 

 

 

US Naval Vessels named Providence through History:

 

Five vessels of the United States Navy have been named Providence, after the city of Providence, Rhode Island.

 

              The 12-Gun Continental Sloop Providence.

~ The first Providence was a 12-gun sloop originally named Katy.  Katy was purchased by Rhode Island on 31 October 1775.  Late in November, Katy sailed for Philadelphia carrying seamen enlisted by Commodore Esek Hopkins in New England for continental service.  Arriving 3 December 1775, Katy was immediately taken into Continental service and renamed Providence.  On 10 May 1776, John Paul Jones assumed command of Providence with temporary rank of Captain.  The British seized Narragansett Bay in December 1776 and Providence with other American vessels there retired up the Providence River. In February 1777, under LT Jonathan Pitcher, Providence ran the British blockade.  She was destroyed by her crew, with other American vessels in the Peneobscot River, 14 August 1779, to prevent her falling into the hands of the British.

 

 

             The 28-Gun Frigate Providence.

~ The second Providence, a 28-gun frigate, built by Silvester Bowes at Providence, RI, by order of the Continental Congress, was launched in May 1776.  After being blockaded in the Providence River for more than a year, the new frigate, under the command of Captain Abraham Whipple, ran the British blockade on the night of 30 April 1778.  Part of Commodore Whipple’s Squadron, on 23 November 1779 she sailed from Nantasket Roads, first cruising eastward of Bermuda, arriving at Charleston, SC on 23 December 1779 to defend the city.  Providence, with the other ships of the Squadron, remained for the defense of Charleston and was one of the ships taken by the British when that city fell on 12 May 1780.  She subsequently served in the British Navy as HMS Providence until sold in March 1783.

 

              The Continental Army Gundalow Providence.

~ The third Providence was a gundalow built at Skenesboro, NY, by the Continental Army for Brigadier-General Benedict Arnold's fleet on Lake Champlain in 1776.  This Providence fought in the Battle of Valcour Island on 11 October 1776.  After the battle, their ammunition nearly exhausted, the Americans retreated towards Crown Point, with the enemy in pursuit and the next morning, 12 October, Providence, being badly damaged, was sunk at Schuyler's Island by her own crew to prevent capture.  During the year 1776 there were three vessels named Providence all serving the Continental Forces at the same time.

 

              The Guided Missile Cruiser USS Providence CLG-6.

~ The fourth Providence (CL-82) was laid down 27 July 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, MA, was launched 28 December 1944 and commissioned on 15 May 1945.  Reclassified CLG-6 on 23 May 1957, Providence commenced conversion to a guided missile light cruiser at Boston in June 1957.  During conversion, Providence was provided with modern missiles, command ship facilities and a nuclear weapons capability.  She was recommissioned 17 September 1959.  This Providence served with distinction during the Vietnam Conflict before being decommissioned on 31 August 1973.

 

              The Fast-Attack Submarine USS Providence SSN-719.

~ The fifth Providence (SSN-719) is a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine launched on 4 August 1984 and commissioned on 27 July 1985.  She is still in active service with the US Atlantic Fleet as of 2009.

 

 

How a Nuclear Submarine Works:

 

           

 

                                                                                                                A typical naval nuclear-powered propulsion plant.

 

A naval nuclear propulsion plant is basically just a high-tech steam engine which, instead of coal or wood burning to heat water, uses the heat of a uranium core to heat water into high-pressure steam which in turn spins both a turbo generator (TG) to provide power and a main engine (ME) to produce propulsion.

 

Water in the Primary Loop (shown in red in the above diagram) is circulated through the Reactor Core where it picks up heat from the fission of the uranium fuel.  That heat is transferred to the water of the Secondary Loop (shown in blue and gray) inside the Steam Generator.  At no time do the Primary Coolant or Secondary Coolant ever mix.  The Pressurizer maintains the Primary Coolant at a nominal pressure to prevent it from flashing to steam and exposing the core elements.

 

The steam generated in the Steam Generator then enters the Engine Room.  Some of the steam is used to spin the Turbo Generators, which produce all the electrical power used by the submarine and to recharge the submarine’s batteries.  The rest of the steam is used to spin the Main Engine turbines.  From there the steam enters the Main Condensers, which use sea water to cool the steam back into water, where it is pumped back to the Steam Generators and reused.

 

The ME’s connect to the Reduction Gears, which lower the torque from high RPM’s to low RPM’s.  The Reduction Gear is connected to the main propeller shaft through a Clutch, which can disconnect the shaft from the gears and connect it to the battery powered Emergency Propulsion Motor (EPM) in an emergency, such as a reactor scram.

 

On its way through the aft hull of the submarine, the shaft passes through the Thrust Block.  This in turn is connected directly to the interior of the submarine hull and is the point where the actual thrust of the screw pushes against the hull, producing forward momentum, so the screw does not actually press against the hull itself, causing friction, noise and wear.

 

The submarine Battery, a DC storage battery, provides emergency power in case of loss of electrical power through a reactor casualty or loss of the Turbo Generators.  Power from the Battery can be used to directly power the EPM and, through the DC to AC Motor Generators, the reactor Coolant Pumps.  The Battery is meant as a temporary solution until the submarine’s Emergency Diesel Generator can be started, which required the submarine to be at periscope depth or on the surface.

 

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