USS Baton Rouge (SSN-689)

USS Baton Rouge (SSN-689), a Los Angeles-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 8 January 1971 and her keel was laid down on 18 November 1972. She was launched on 26 April 1975 sponsored by the wife of Felix Edward Hébert, and commissioned on 25 June 1977 with Commander Thomas Maloney in command.

Collision incident

On 11 February 1992, at 20:16 local time, while on patrol off Kildin Island near Severomorsk, Baton Rouge under command of Gordon Kremer collided with the Sierra-class attack submarine K-276. The United States Navy stated that the collision occurred more than 12 miles (22 km) from the shore, in international waters. However, the Soviet Union (and now Russia) uses its own (not internationally recognized) set of rules for defining the boundary between territorial and international waters, and their rules put the collision site inside their territorial waters. Both submarines were able to return to their respective bases under their own power. K-276 was fully repaired by June 1992. Commander Kremer was relieved of command.

Decommissioning

Less than two years later, on 1 November 1993, Baton Rouge was placed in commission in reserve. On 13 January 1995, she became the first Los Angeles-class submarine to be decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, after only 17½ years in commission. After having been refueled (Baton Rouge was not), some of her sister ships have served 25 years or more. Ex-Baton Rouge entered the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program and ceased to exist on 30 September 1997.

References

• Eugene Miasnikov, Submarine Collision off Murmansk: A Look from Afar, as reprinted in The Submarine Review (April, 1993, pp. 6-14).