Launching of USS Patrick Henry

This photo was taken in Groton, Connecticut on the day of the commissioning of USS Patrick Henry showing the first launching of the submarine with crew on deck. Patrick Henry was a nuclear-powered submarine designed to fire Polaris ballistic missiles from underwater or surface positions. It was the sister ship of USS George Washington and the second submarine launched in the Navy’s Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine program. Submarines in this new fleet incorporated all the latest advancements in navigation and nuclear technology for its time. Patrick Henry was 380 feet long with a water displacement of 5,400 tons on the surface. Taking less than sixteen months from the laying of the keel to the launch date, Patrick Henry was built in record time, faster than all previous nuclear submarines as well as all post-war diesel-electric powered submarines before it.

Betty Arends, wife of Congressman Leslie C. Arends of Illinois, christened Patrick Henry on September 22, 1959. Mabel Bellwood, curator of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, and James S. Easley, president of the Foundation, were invited to attend the christening ceremony. Bellwood represented the foundation that day.