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&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:USS_Hawkbill_(SSN-666).jpg) USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) off Southern California on 1 February 1991
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) |
| Namesake | Misspelling carried over from previous ship of the name (USS Hawkbill (SS-366)) of "hawksbill", a large sea turtle |
| Ordered | 18 December 1964 |
| Builder | Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California |
| Laid down | 12 September 1966 |
| Launched | 12 April 1969 |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. Bernard F. Roeder |
| Commissioned | 4 February 1971 |
| Decommissioned | 15 March 2000 |
| Stricken | 15 March 2000 |
| Nickname(s) |
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| Fate | Scrapping via Ship and Submarine Recycling Program begun 15 March 2000, completed 1 December 2000 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Sturgeon-class attack submarine |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 292 ft (89 m) |
| Beam | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draft | 29 ft (8.8 m) |
| Installed power | 15,000 shp (11,000 kW) |
| Propulsion | One S5W nuclear reactor, two steam turbines, one screw |
| Speed |
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| Test depth | 1,300 ft (400 m) |
| Complement | 109 (14 officers, 95 enlisted men) |
| Armament | 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
USS Hawkbill (SSN-666), a Sturgeon-class attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the hawksbill, a large sea turtle. The name perpetuated the inadvertent misspelling of "hawksbill" in the naming of the first ship of that name, USS Hawkbill (SS-366), a Balao-class submarine launched in 1944. USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) was the eighteenth of 39 Sturgeon-class nuclear-powered submarines that were built.
Hawkbill was sometimes called "The Devil Boat" or the "Devilfish" because of her hull number (666), from chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation, in the Bible's New Testament, which begins "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea...." and ends "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six;" and the resulting association in Christianity of the number 666 with the Devil and the Antichrist.[citation needed]