USS Thresher

USS Thresher has been the name of more than one United States Navy ship, and may refer to:

USS Thresher (SS-200)

USS Thresher (SS-200), a Tambor-class submarine, was the first United States Navy ship to be named for the thresher shark. Her keel was laid down 27 May 1939 at the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 27 March 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Claud A. Jones and commissioned on 27 August 1940, with Lieutenant Commander William Lovett Anderson (Annapolis, Class of 1926) in command.

Sea trials

Following training and sea trials, Thresher got underway from New London, Connecticut on 25 October 1940 for engineering trials in Gravesend Bay, New York, and shakedown off the Dry Tortugas.

She operated along the East Coast through the end of 1940 and into 1941. She set sail on 1 May 1941 for the Caribbean Sea, en route for Pearl Harbor, transiting the Panama Canal on 9 May, stopping in San Diego, through 21 May, and arriving at Pearl Harbor on 31 May. She operated out of the Hawaiian Islands into the fall of 1941, as tensions rose in the Far East and the U.S. prepared for war in both oceans.

USS Thresher (SSN-593)

The second USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy. Her loss at sea in the North Atlantic during deep-diving tests approximately 220 miles (350 km) east of Boston, Massachusetts, on 10 April 1963 was a watershed event for the U.S. Navy, leading to the implementation of a rigorous submarine safety program known as SUBSAFE. Judging by the 129 crew members and shipyard personnel who were killed in the incident, historic context and significance, the sinking of Thresher was then, and remains today, the world's worst submarine disaster. This was the first U.S. nuclear submarine lost at sea.

Significance of design and loss