The contract to build Swordfish was awarded to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery, Maine, on 18 July 1955, and her keel was laid down on 25 January 1956.

After post-shakedown availability and subsequent sea trials along the East Coast, she was assigned a home port at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, effective 16 March 1959.

Swordfish returned to Pearl Harbor on 14 July and operated locally until September when she deployed to the western Pacific for two months.

In late 1965, Swordfish was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for special operations from 8 October to 3 December 1963, from 22 September to 25 November 1964, and from 20 May to 23 July 1965.

Swordfish arrived at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard on 1 November 1965 to undergo a refueling and SubSafe overhaul which lasted until 31 August 1967.

In May 1968, anti-nuclear activists alleged that Swordfish had released radioactive coolant water into the harbor of Sasebo, Japan where she was moored at the time.

Some sources state that Japanese scientists discovered levels up to twenty times normal background, others, that they could not detect any increase in radioactivity.

She was deployed on special operations from 24 February to 9 April 1970 and then entered drydock at Pearl Harbor for an availability period which lasted until 30 September.

Swordfish continued local operations until 26 June 1972 when she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for her annual overhaul which lasted through 31 December 1973.

Swordfish made a deployment to the western Pacific from October 1977 until March 1978, stopping in Yokosuka, Pusan, Chinhae, Guam, Philippines, and Hong Kong.

In September 1978 a paint scraper worth 15¢ was accidentally dropped into a torpedo launcher and jammed the loading piston in its cylinder.

When the planesmen put a slight up-angle on the boat to come shallow the water in the bilges instantly rushed aft, greatly increasing its effect on trim (this is known as "free surface effect", later classes of subs have flood control bulkheads in engineroom lower level to prevent this) and causing an up-angle of about 45 degrees.

When "fire in engineroom lower level" was announced, due to water in the main lube oil pump motors, a man in the aft end of engineroom upper level opened the watertight door into the stern room, which swung into the stern room, to retrieve a fire extinguisher.

Before the Chief of the Watch could initiate the blow on the aft group the up-angle became so steep that he was unable to maintain footing and slid to the rear of the Control compartment.

After a while, the leading ELT found the necessary reagents and analyzed samples from both steam generators on the top hat in reactor compartment upper level.

The reactor was cooled down and steam generators were blown down with service air and refilled until all fresh water on the boat was exhausted, which was a couple of hours before arriving back in Pearl Harbor.

The temperature in the ship exceeded 80 °F (27 °C) with near 100% humidity for the several hours required for a tugboat to be dispatched from Pearl Harbor and tow Swordfish home.

Her disposal through the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) was completed at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, on 11 September 1995.