Salmon was laid down on 10 March 1954 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 25 February 1956 sponsored by Mrs. Albert M. Bontier, widow of Commander A. M. Bontier who was lost when the submarine USS Seawolf (SS-197) was sunk during a war patrol in the South Pacific early in October 1944, and commissioned on 26 August 1956 with Lieutenant Commander Robert R. Hale in command.