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.
As
of 2011, Providence is assigned once
again to Submarine Development Squadron 12
and home-ported 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 2005.
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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