~ Peace Through Excellence ~
Originally
~ Festina Lente ~
"Make Haste Slowly"
Specifications:
Keel Laid: 07 APR 58- Launched: 31 OCT 60
- Commissioned: 24 OCT 61
- Decommissioned: 14 NOV 86
- Stricken: 14 NOV 1986
- Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding
- Propulsion system: one S5W nuclear reactor
- Screw: one
- Length: 252 ft (77 meters)
- Beam: 32 ft (10 meters)
- Draft: 28 ft (8.5 meters)
- Displacement, surfaced: approx. 2880 tons
- Displacement, submerged: approx. 3600 tons
- Speed: Surfaced: 15 knots
- Speed: Submerged: in excess of 30 knots
- Armament: six x 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
- Crew: 12 Officers, 106 Enlisted
Sources: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, www.navysite.de
Naming the Snook:
USS SNOOK is named for a fish known scientifically as Centropomus undecimalis (Bloch). It belongs to the family of spiny-rayed fishes known as the Centropomidae, which includes the robalos, constantinos, robalitos, and sergeant fishes. Members of this family may be recognized by the dark streak along the lateral side of the body, a pike-like appearance, and two fins on the back, of which the first contains very strong spines. They occur in tropical and subtropical waters, along both the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the American Continent.
The SNOOK ranges along our Atlantic and Gulf Coast from Florida and Texas southward through the West Indies and Panama to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, living along the coast and ascending fresh water streams a short distance. It is known to anglers in Florida as a fighting game fish.
The color of the SNOOK is bluish gray above and silvery below; the sides often have dusky puntulation; the fins are pale or dusky, but never blackish; the lateral line is black. It attains a length of about four feet and a weight of fifteen to twenty pounds. It is especially voracious, rushing its prey like a black streak. Food is quickly devoured by the aid of the strong teeth and large mouth. It is well protected from enemies by the sharo spines on the gill covers and the strong spines in the fins.
Give us a name, the Navy said,
which conveys a sneaking measure of dread;
Of shadows searching in waters still,
where the lean barracuda lurks to kill;
And they said "good sirs, we give you the SNOOK!"
Now the snook is a killer which strikes where it sneaks,
and which follows a scent without stopping for weeks;
And when ready to strike it exudes a faint smell,
of derision and sulphur and brimstone from hell;
Which to those to be "snookered" is a little reminder.
That the SNOOK can't be caught...by those who can't find her!
