GREYTCOVERS NAVAL COVER USS SEADRAGON SSN-584 50TH ANNIVERSARY NORTH POLE CRUISE

Description

You are bidding on a computer designed/printed Greytcovers by W.J. Wladyka (USCS #9915) naval cover (design #290)(#10 of 12 ) commemorating the 50th anniversary of the USS Seadragon SSN-584 surfacing at the North Pole.
USS Seadragon (SSN-584), a Skate-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seadragon, a small fish commonly called the dragonet. This ship was a nuclear-powered submarine. The contract to build her was awarded to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine on 29 September 1955 and her keel was laid down on 20 June 1956. She was launched on 16 August 1958 sponsored by Mrs. Robert L. Dennison, and commissioned on 5 December 1959, with Lieutenant Commander George P. Steele in command.
Following a Caribbean shakedown cruise, Seadragon returned to
Portsmouth
, where, on 1 August 1960, she sailed for the Pacific. Ordered to proceed via the
Northwest Passage
, she moved north to
Parry Channel
, at mid-month reached
Lancaster Sound
, the eastern end of the channel, and continued westward with
Edward Parry
's 1819 journal as a guide.
Collecting oceanographic and hydrographic data en route, Seadragon transited the
Barrow Strait
,
Viscount Melville Sound
, and
McClure Strait
. On 21 August, she completed the first submarine transit of the
Northwest Passage
, entered the
Beaufort Sea
, and headed for the
North Pole
, which she reached on 25 August. The ship surfaced through the thin ice becoming the third submarine to surface at the pole. Members of the crew laid out a softball diamond with the pitcher's box at the pole where the captain claimed he hit a fly ball at 4:00 pm on Wednesday and it wasn't caught until 4:00 am on Thursday. From the pole, Seadragon (having no other choice) turned south, and after conducting experiments in cooperation with scientists on ice island T-3, headed for the
Chukchi Sea
and
Bering Strait
. On 5 September, she reached
Nome, Alaska
, and, nine days later, she arrived at her home port,
Pearl Harbor
. She was awarded the
Navy Unit Commendation
for her transit of the Northwest Passage via Parry Channel.
The cover is cancelled with a well-struck pictorial postmark on 25 Aug. 2010 at Nome, AK 99782 and is franked with a 44c 'Scouting' stamp.
Overall cover condition is very good. The cover is a standard No. 6-3/4, 3-5/8 x 6-1/2". The blue around the edge is part of the background.
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