USS William H. Bates (SSN-680), a Sturgeon-class attack submarine, was planned to be the second U.S. Navy ship to be named USS Redfish—for the redfish, a variety of salmon also called blueback, sawqui, red salmon, and nerka—when the contract to build her was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 25 June 1968. However, upon the 22 June 1969 death of William H. Bates (1917–1969), the U.S. representative from Massachusetts's 6th congressional district (1950–1969) known for his staunch support of nuclear propulsion in the U.S. Navy, she was renamed William H. Bates and was laid down on 4 August 1969 as the only ship of the U.S. Navy to have borne the name. The reason for her naming by then-Secretary of the Navy John Chafee, breaking with a long-standing Navy tradition of naming U.S. Navy attack submarines for sea creatures, was best summed up by Admiral Hyman Rickover, the then-director of the Navy's nuclear reactors program, with the pithy comment that, "Fish don't vote!" Construction and commissioning The contract to build Redfish was awarded on 25 June 1968, and she had been renamed William H. Bates by the time her keel was laid on 4 August 1969 by Ingalls Shipbuilding. She was launched on 11 December 1971, sponsored by Mrs. Andrew R. Grainger, and commissioned on 5 May 1973. Service history 1973–1979 After shakedown, William H. Bates arrived at her home port, New London, Connecticut. She was deployed to the eastern Atlantic Ocean between July and October 1974 and conducted her first patrol mission before visiting Holy Loch, Scotland, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on her way home. However, her respite was brief, for she was again underway on patrol by the latter part of December 1974 and into January 1975. After voyage repairs at Holy Loch, she called at Faslane, Scotland, for a port visit. Departing Faslane for home in late January 1974, William H. Bates underwent a refit at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, before conducting local operations off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, into the summer of 1975. She was deployed to European waters again soon thereafter, taking part in antisubmarine warfare exercises. In November 1975, she took part in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercises "Moby Dick" and "Ocean Safari '75," before she returned to New London in December 1975. William H. Bates conducted her first deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in 1976, departing New London