Notes
This picture was taken in Groton, Connecticut, on September 22, 1959, when the submarine USS Patrick Henry (SSN599) was commissioned. It shows the submarine's first launch with the crew on deck and demonstrates how the decorative bunting was fixed on the bow for the ceremony.
"Patrick Henry" was a nuclear-powered submarine designed by General Dynamics Corporation to fire Polaris ballistic missiles from underwater or surface positions. It was the sister ship of USS George Washington and the second submarine launched in the Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine program. Submarines in this new fleet incorporated all the latest advancements in navigation and nuclear technology for its time. "Patrick Henry" was 380 feet long with a water displacement of 5,400 tons on the surface. Taking less than 16 months from the laying of the keel to the launch date, "Patrick Henry" was built in record time, faster than all previous nuclear subs and all post-war diesel-electric powered submarines before it.
Betty Tychon Arends, wife of Congressman Leslie C. Arends of Illinois, christened USS Patrick Henry on September 22, 1959. Mabel Bellwood, curator of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, and James S. Easley, president of the foundation, were invited to attend the christening ceremony. The United States Navy, through a private contractor, General Dynamics Electric Boat Division, presented this photograph along with two others to the foundation.