The fast attack submarine Archerfish was launched in 1971.
When it came to correspondence, Dad saved everything. Well, perhaps the credit should actually go to the various Chief Yeomen who maintained his office files when he was in the Navy. Without them I wouldn’t have his wonderful collection of submarine first day covers.
Dad had a long career in the Navy—primarily in submarines—retiring as a Vice Admiral. He served in the Submarine Force during World War II and later was the first commanding officer of the USS Nautilus. From 1970 to 1972 he was in charge of all of the submarines in the Atlantic fleet. His final assignment was Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Submarine Warfare. Other than Admiral Rickover, he was probably the best known officer in the Submarine Force from the mid-1950’s until he retired in 1974.
So it’s not surprising that he was on the mailing lists for many of the letters that were sent out when submarines were launched. Similar to first day covers for stamps, the envelopes have colorful cachets and are postmarked with the date and location where the launching took place (see scan above for an example). Inside there is usually information about the ship and sometimes a personal note from its skipper.
Collectively the covers represent a snapshot of the shipbuilding effort that was part of our nation’s military strategy during the Cold War. Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarines provided a critical deterrent against the Soviet ICBM threat while fast attack subs were designed to hunt and destroy enemy submarines. The Cold War submarines ran on nuclear power and could stay submerged for weeks or months at a time. The FBM subs were so quiet that Russia never developed the technology to detect them despite nearly going bankrupt on defense spending.
During the 1960’s and early 1970’s the Navy launched a new submarine every few months. In the collection there are eight launching covers from 1963 alone.
Dad’s collection includes both fast attack and FBM submarines. He doesn’t have a letter for every submarine built during the Cold War, but he has a good chunk of them.
FBM submarines carried Polaris (and later Poseidon) ballistic missiles. Forty-one FBM submarines were built. Dubbed the “Forty-One for Freedom,” they were named after famous Americans and several foreigners who helped our country in times of need. Examples include the USS George Washington, Casimir Pulaski, and Sam Rayburn, and one submarine named for two men—the USS Lewis and Clark. Dad has launching covers for 21 of the submarines in that group.
The first fast attack submarines were named after sea creatures. Later in the Cold War a larger class of attack submarines, named after cities, was developed. In the collection there are covers for the USS Spadefish, Drum, Indianapolis, and many others. Unfortunately the USS Bremerton, launched in 1978, isn’t in the collection. In all there are launching covers for 39 fast attack submarines.
As a former stamp collector I paid particular attention to the stamps that were used. The postage on many of the covers is 6 cents or less, an amount that seems quaint now. Some have a closely related commemorative stamp. In a few cases the people doing the mailing reached back into U.S. postal history for the right stamp. The cover for the USS George Washington Carver, launched in 1965, bears two 3-cent stamps that were issued in 1948 to honor the American scientist and educator.
The mailing for a 1961 launching includes a signed personal note from Admiral Rickover. It’s to the point:
Dear Wilkinson:
I thought you might like to have the first day cover commemorating the launching of the USS PERMIT.
Sincerely,
H. G. Rickover
In a case of great public relations, Mare Island Naval Shipyard was selected as the site for building the USS Mariano G. Vallejo. Or perhaps Mare Island submitted the most competitive bid. However the decision was made, this allowed the Vallejo’s 1965 launching cover to be postmarked in the city where the shipyard is located: Vallejo, California. That must have been a proud day for Vallejo.
I plan to spend a bit more time going through the covers looking for historical footnotes like that. But I’m also thinking about donating a portion of the collection to the submarine museum in Keyport, Washington, so that others can enjoy them. I think that would be OK with Dad.
Mud Bay Blog 
I enjoyed your post. As a counterbalance you might have included the comments to mother.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I’ve been watching a lot of Pawn Stars lately at night and there is a lot of interesting historical things that come in; this would definitely make the grade!
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I too enjoy seeing posts like this. I also cherish the memories of sitting in my father’s drawing room watching as he put pen to mat while looking through a magnifying glass to produce the fine images that you see in these covers. Yes my father Eugene Wright produced these covers for General Dynamics from roughly 1955 until the early 1980’s. Each cover depiction was as though it was done by a computer in dot matrix fashion. Yet each cover that you see, was done in pen and ink as a perfect copy of various declassified naval photos. Also the launch banners on each submarine were penned by my father in his drawing room in Ashaway RI prior to the subs launch. I often visit various sites looking to start a collection of my fathers works but as yet have not purchased any.