USS Queenfish (SSN-651), a attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the queenfish, a small food fish found off the Pacific coast of North America. Construction and commissioning The contract to build Queenfish was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on 26 March 1963 and her keel was laid down there on 11 May 1964. She was launched on 25 February 1966, sponsored by Julia Butler Hansen, U.S. Representative from Washingtons 3rd Congressional District (1960–1974), and commissioned on 6 December 1966. Queenfish was launched one day ahead of the lead ship of her class, the Sturgeon, despite being laid down 18 months later, and as a result of a multimillion-dollar bonus offered by the Navy to the Newport News shipyard. She was also commissioned in December 1966, three months ahead of Sturgeon. Service history Queenfish spent the early months of 1967 practicing under-ice operations in the Davis Strait. She was assigned Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as her home port and arrived there in late spring 1967 via Guantanamo Bay, the Panama Canal, and the Pacific Northwest. In 1968, escorted by the Australian minehunter HMAS Curlew, USS Queenfish was the first nuclear-powered warship to visit Australia. Queenfish berthed at Station Pier, Melbourne, on 5 March 1968. The visit was a success, despite anti-nuclear protests. (These dates are incorrect. Queenfish did not go to Australia in 1968) In mid-1970, Queenfish operated below the polar ice pack in the Arctic, mapping the Arctic Oceans seabed for potential military purposes in the event of a war between the Soviet Union and the United States. She also surfaced at the North Pole in August 1970 and spent 20 days exploring the Siberian Shelf across the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas. From 1970 to 1973 Queenfish completed two Pacific deployments, two Vietnam excursions, and six cold war missions. She then entered the Bremerton Navy Yard for overhaul. Queenfish revisited the North Pole in 1985 and 1988. In 1983 Hurricane Eva struck the Hawaiian Islands causing extensive damage to the infrastructure on Oahu. As per orders from COMSUBPAC all U.S. Navy submarines put to sea for the duration of the storm. Upon their return to Pearl Harbor the fleet was informed that the electrical power at Pearl had been disrupted by the hurricane. Normally, while in port, the nuclear reactors on Navy