Soviet missile sub in trouble...... Prov. RI, USA

[u-5075]

Russian submarine listing in Providence River after storm

PROVIDENCE, RI, USA

April 17, 2007 - 9:29AM
A Russian submarine used as a floating museum in the Providence River is listing after yesterday's storm.

Museum President Frank Lennon says the nor'easter caused an extreme high tide and winds that pushed the submarine on a shoal close to shore. It's now leaning to the left.

Lennon says the submarine floats in about a foot of water, so there's little danger. No water has penetrated the boat.

The museum hasn't yet decided how to fix the problem. The boat has been closed to visitors.

The Soviet Navy built the sub in the 1950s. It was designed to track and sink US and NATO warships during the Cold War.

[tom dougherty]

Latest-Sub Sunk!

Providence submarine now completely submerged

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- "An old Soviet submarine used as a floating museum is now completely submerged in the Providence River.

The Russian Sub Museum started taking on water after a spring nor'easter earlier this week. Ship's engineer Damon Ise says the submarine sank sometime in the evening hours.

He says it's at least 65 or 75 percent full of water.

The museum is coordinating with the Coast Guard and a professional salvage company from New York to come up with a plan to bring it back up.

Ise says he expects it will cost a huge amount of money to do that. He says the museum will pay for the operation with insurance. There's no word yet on when it might happen."

Photos of this submarine which I took just a few months ago are below on the Wayne's Russian Submarine Section, under Julliett class.
Tom

[shadowpeo]

Damn, thats gotta suck

Damn, thats gotta suck

[u-5075]

Soviet-era submarine sinks in Providence
By

Soviet-era submarine sinks in Providence
By Michelle R. Smith, Associated Press Writer | April 18, 2007

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --An old Soviet submarine now used as a floating museum sank and was completely submerged in the Providence River after being battered by a powerful nor'easter earlier this week.

All that could be seen of the Russian Sub Museum Wednesday was about two feet of its periscope, and workers said it could be months before it's open again.
"We got hit with a freak storm with astronomical high tides," ship's engineer Damon Ise said.

A tidal surge paired with direct and powerful easterly winds from the storm on Sunday and Monday pushed the sub up onto a shoal adjacent to where it's anchored along the western bank of the river, Ise said. Then water began seeping into the inoperable sub, which is not watertight.

The sub was listing to its left, or port, side Monday. Late Tuesday night, Ise said, the sub tipped further and sank.

Museum officials believe the sub is filled with water, though they don't think the instruments are damaged because they are water tight.

Ise said the sub, alternately designated as K-77 or Juliett 484, is the only submarine of its kind in the United States.

"For those of us who put a lot of time into this, it's heartbreaking," he said.

K-77, launched in 1965 as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet, is about 282 feet long and 31 feet wide, and was diesel powered. The Juliett class was initially planned as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States and carried four nuclear cruise missiles. Later, it began tracking U.S. aircraft carriers.

The sub was used in the 1990s as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and later as a set for the Harrison Ford movie "K-19: The Widowmaker" before being acquired by the USS Saratoga Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

It opened as a museum in 2002 and has since had tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world. It's also a popular place for birthday parties and even hosted a wedding in 2005, volunteers at the museum said Wednesday.

Laurie Prete and her 14-year-old son Louis, of North Providence, have been volunteers at the museum for four years, and the two spent part of Wednesday in the sub's ticket office with other workers peering out the window at the empty space where the sub once floated.

Louis is a docent and leads tours of the sub, he said.

"He got so into history, World War II, everything, because of this sub," Laurie Prete said. "I feel like I lost a family member."

A salvage company was working on a plan to bring the sub off the river floor and pump out the water, Ise said. The sub is insured, and he said that should pay the tab for the work.

"I assume it's going to cost a huge amount of money," he said. "This is going to be a huge salvage operation."

It was too early to know how long it might take to raise the sub and clean it out, but Ise said it took workers three months to get it ready for visitors before the museum opened in 2002. This time around, they'll be contending with what he termed "a slime line" left by the water.

Still, workers were taking the news with a sense of humor Wednesday.

Ise was calling it the "Russian Sunken Sub Museum."

[tmsmalley]

From Wayne Frey -

http://upload8.postimage.org/32505/sub1.jpg

Russian sub

From Wayne Frey -



Russian sub in Providence river, photo from whdh-tv web-site


Soviet Submarine Sinks in Providence River
Created: 19.04.2007 13:02 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:27 MSK, 3 hours 17 minutes ago


MosNews


An old Soviet submarine now used as a floating museum sank and was completely submerged in the Providence River after being battered by a powerful nor’easter earlier this week, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

All that could be seen of the Russian Sub Museum Wednesday was about two feet of its periscope, and workers said it could be months before it’s open again.

“We got hit with a freak storm with astronomical high tides,” ship’s engineer Damon Ise said.

A tidal surge paired with direct and powerful easterly winds from the storm on Sunday and Monday pushed the sub up onto a shoal adjacent to where it’s anchored along the western bank of the river, Ise said. Then water began seeping into the inoperable sub, which is not watertight.

The sub was listing to its left, or port, side Monday. Late Tuesday night, Ise said, the sub tipped further and sank.

Museum officials believe the sub is filled with water, though they don’t think the instruments are damaged because they are water tight.

Ise said the sub, alternately designated as K-77 or Juliett 484, is the only submarine of its kind in the United States.

“For those of us who put a lot of time into this, it’s heartbreaking,” he said.

K-77, launched in 1965 as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet, is about 282 feet long and 31 feet wide, and was diesel powered. The Juliett class was initially planned as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States and carried four nuclear cruise missiles. Later, it began tracking U.S. aircraft carriers.

The sub was used in the 1990s as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and later as a set for the Harrison Ford movie “K-19: The Widowmaker” before being acquired by the USS Saratoga Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

It opened as a museum in 2002 and has since had tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world. It’s also a popular place for birthday parties and even hosted a wedding in 2005, volunteers at the museum said Wednesday.

Laurie Prete and her 14-year-old son Louis, of North Providence, have been volunteers at the museum for four years, and the two spent part of Wednesday in the sub’s ticket office with other workers peering out the window at the empty space where the sub once floated.

Louis is a docent and leads tours of the sub, he said.

“He got so into history, World War II, everything, because of this sub,” Laurie Prete said. “I feel like I lost a family member.”

A salvage company was working on a plan to bring the sub off the river floor and pump out the water, Ise said. The sub is insured, and he said that should pay the tab for the work.

“I assume it’s going to cost a huge amount of money,” he said.

“This is going to be a huge salvage operation.”

It was too early to know how long it might take to raise the sub and clean it out, but Ise said it took workers three months to get it ready for visitors before the museum opened in 2002. This time around, they’ll be contending with what he termed “a slime line” left by the water.

Still, workers were taking the news with a sense of humor Wednesday.

Ise was calling it the “Russian Sunken Sub Museum.”

Riffing off the museum’s motto of “Our museum can sink your museum,” volunteer Ken Johnson came up with a new one: “Our museum can sink. Your museum?”

[tom dougherty]

Photos of the submarine in better times...

FYI-If you look below in "Wayne's Russian World" under the Julliett class, there is a set of exterior and interior photos I took of the museum this past January.

[boss subfixer]

Here is a copy of

Here is a copy of an e-mail I received from Ken Johnson, one of the volunteers at the museum. He is a member of SubRon 4. There is a link to his web site for those that are interested.

QUOTE:
I plan to be at the meeting on Saturday and I am sure by now that most of you know of the fate of the Russian Juliett sub in Providence. Here is a link to a web page I posted on my Website this morning that will tell you a little more than what you may have read in the paper or seen on the TV news: www.oakhamgraphics.com/K-77/sinking.html . I have a theory of what happened on Monday, but it is only that and no one was there at the time that could verify it. There MAY have been a "window of opportunity" Monday afternoon to prevent it from sinking, but I guess it was pretty rough at that time and would probably have been very risky. I was actually the last one on board prior to Tuesday afternoon as I was the Sunday Duty Officer. On Sunday evening when I left, things were normal and it was just a lousy, rainy day. I have seen much worse.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Coast Guard ordered that Collier Point Park be closed to the public. For how long I know not, but it is a matter of safety. If you have never seen a mooring line snap, it can be a life-ending experience if you are in the wrong place. When the salvage operation will begin, I know not either at this time.

Yesterday I had a take-out lunch from Apsara Restaurant and my fortune cookie said, "You are given the chance to take part in an exciting adventure." Oookaaayyy, I just would have preferred something different.

Ken Johnson

END QUOTE

Don

[u-5075]

There is now a fair

There is now a fair amount of current and recent status info about the he Juliett 484 in Providence, RI.
To be able to see photos and read much more information click on the URL below. Then click onto
highlighted/underlined areas for more.............

http://www.juliett484.org/juliett/index.html

THE SHORT VERSION OF UPDATE REPORTS

The Russian Submarine Museum is currently CLOSED, as we recover from major storm damage. Read the initial story here.
A collection of photos, courtesy of Ken Johnson and Oakham Graphics, documenting the state of the submarine from 17-18 April, can be found here [Select this link].


UPDATE 7 May 07 - In hull compartment survey begins]

UPDATE 2 May 07 - Photos of dive operations: More photos documenting diving operations while performing initial assessments of the submarine [Select this link].

UPDATE 1 May 07 - Underwater assessments continue]

UPDATE 28 APRIL 2007 - Underwater survey of sunken Russian submarine begins: After several days of careful preparation, commercial divers from Newport-based Northeast Diving Services, Inc. began the underwater survey of the Russian submarine Friday. The purpose of this survey dive was to assess the condition of the hull, determine its position relative to the river bed, and gather data so we can determine the stability of the sub as she currently sits. The sub, which sank at its berth in last week's storm, does not appear to have moved in several days. [Click here to read more]

UPDATE 28 APRIL cont'd - Photos of ROV and dive operations]. Another collection of photos of diving operations conducted on 28 April can be found here [Select this link].

20 APRIL 2007 - Russian Submarine Juliett 484 sinks in major storm]

Any offers of professional services and/or equipment to help us overcome this storm damage would be most appreciated--please call Frank Lennon at 401-831-8696 or e-mail:

russiansubmarine@aol.com

Financial contributions to refloat the sub may be made to the Russian Sub Museum, PO Box 28581, Providence, RI 02908.

Our non-profit Russian Sub Museum rescued this vessel once before, and we are determined to rescue it again.

Frank Lennon