Soviet submarine K-77
K-77 was a "Project 651" (also known by its NATO reporting name of Juliett-class) cruise missile submarine of the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down in the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard in Gorky on 31 January 1963. She was launched on 11 March 1965, and commissioned on 31 October 1965 into the Northern Fleet.
 K-77 docked in Providence, Rhode Island | |
| History | |
|---|---|
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| Name: | K-77 |
| Ordered: | 1950s |
| Laid down: | 31 January 1963 |
| Launched: | 11 March 1965 |
| Commissioned: | 31 October 1965 |
| Decommissioned: | 1991–1994 |
| Stricken: | 1994 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap August 2009 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Juliett-class submarine |
| Displacement: | |
| Length: | 91 m (298 ft 7 in) |
| Beam: | 10 m (32 ft 10 in) |
| Draft: | 7 m (23 ft 0 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: |
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| Endurance: | 800 hours submerged, stores for 90 days |
| Test depth: |
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| Complement: | 82 (12 officers, 16 petty officers, 54 men) |
| Armament: |
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K-77 was built later in the Juliett class, so her hull was conventional steel and her battery was of the conventional lead-acid type, rather than the austenitic steel and silver-zinc batteries used in the first Julietts. K-77 was also used as the set for the motion picture K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.
Career
The details of K-77's career remain largely unknown. Juliett-class submarines were used to follow United States Navy aircraft carrier battle groups in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Circumstantial evidence indicates that K-77 often patrolled the Mediterranean, off the coast of West Africa, and at least once in the Caribbean Sea near the United States Virgin Islands. Papers found aboard her during inspection in Helsinki suggest that she had shadowed Norwegian Kobben-class submarines.
At some point in her career, K-77 (the K standing for крейсерская, kreyserskaya — "cruiser") was redesignated Б-77 (the Б standing for большая, bolshaya — "large"). In 1987, K-77 was withdrawn from the blue-water Northern Fleet and transferred to the Baltic Fleet. The redesignation and transfer could easily be related.
The Soviet Navy began withdrawing the Julietts from active service in 1988. K-77 was decommissioned sometime after 1991, and by the end of 1994, all Julietts had been retired.
Post-decommissioning
Finland
At the end of the Cold War, Finnish businessman Jari Komulainen, who was married to the daughter of President of Finland Mauno Koivisto, used his influence as Finland's "first son-in-law" to convince the Russian government to lease him a Project 641 "Foxtrot"-class submarine, probably the ex-B-39. Komulainen opened it to the public in Helsinki in the spring of 1993 as a tourist attraction. He then purchased two Juliett-class submarines, one Juliett replacing the Foxtrot in 1994, becoming a bar and restaurant as well as a tourist attraction.[1] Komulainen believed that his restaurant had been K-81, based on a metal plate discovered inside the boat. However, it later transpired that that plate and others bearing different numbers were provided for the crew to display on the submarine's sail during surface running to confuse NATO reconnaissance aircraft. Komulainen also held a beauty pageant "Miss Submarine" at his Soviet submarine K-77. Model Anitra Ahtola won the competition who became later his third wife.[2]
As a restaurant, K-77 was modestly successful, but was not lucrative enough to satisfy Komulainen. In 1998, he leased his submarine to a Canadian promoter, who towed it to Tampa Bay, Florida.[1] However, the intended mooring location in the harbor was too shallow and the investors were forced to move the proposed tourist attraction to a more remote site. Soon, the promoter filed for bankruptcy, and K-77 reverted to Komulainen.
eBay
Komulainen did not want to repeat the nerve-wracking trans-Atlantic tow, and instead tried at least twice to auction the submarine on eBay — auctions #222791130, ending on 20 December 1999, and #270148521, ending on 7 March 2000. In each case, bidding was to start at US$1 million. No bids were received.
Widowmaker
The eBay auction, however, caught the attention of Intermedia Film Equities Ltd., who chartered K-77 for US$200,000 and towed her to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2000 to become the set for the motion picture K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.[1] The boat was modified with fiberglass to make it resemble K-19 submarine.[1]
Museum
The film wrapped up in 2002, when the submarine was purchased by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation,[3] towed to Collier Point Park in Providence, Rhode Island, and opened to the public in August 2002. K-77 offered public tours and a comprehensive educational program in accordance with New Standards and attuned to the advancement requirements of both Boy Scout and Girl Scout programs.
When the Saratoga Museum Foundation took possession of the submarine, it was described as K-81 in the initial press releases from the Saratoga Museum Foundation. The foundation spent months refurbishing the interior, which included removing several bulkheads, moving large pieces of equipment, and going deep into the bilges. During this process, documents were found which provided incontrovertible proof that the submarine was K-77 and not K-81 as earlier thought. The records confirming this information include maintenance reports, equipment exchanges, radio messages, duty rosters, log entries, and torpedo firing exercises, which all identify the submarine as K-77.
Sinking
The submarine sank on 18 April 2007 after a storm, and plans were made to raise it off the river bottom.[4] The Museum's theory on why the submarine sank is that a modified hatch was not properly watertight.[5] Recovery efforts by U.S. Navy and Army divers began in June 2008 as part of a project to train military divers through real-world, community-based projects.[6][7]
On 2 June 2008, divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two in Norfolk, Virginia arrived and began preparations to raise the submarine. On 25 July 2008, she was brought to the surface by US Navy and Army divers. The work of pumping out water was completed in August 2008.[8] The sub was badly deteriorated and in need of substantial repair.[9]
On 11 August 2009, RI Recycled Metals LLC towed the sub to a facility 1,000 yards (910 m) from the museum site so that it could be scrapped.[10]
A portion of the vessel remained in the river and in 2017, a judge ordered that the remnants be removed.[11]
Torpedo room
Ballast Tank Indicator
Divers begin salvage operations
Army Sgt. Chaise Turner, assigned to the 544th Engineering Dive Team of Fort Eustis, Virginia, operates a cargo strap that is attached to the sunken former Soviet submarine Juliett 484
Navy Reserve Navy Diver Seaman Jesse Kole, assigned to Naval Experimental Diving Unit, does an inspection dive of the interior of the wreck of the former Russian submarine Juliett 484.
References
- Zuckerman, Elizabeth (5 June 2005). "Soviet submarine once prepared to attack East Coast now calls Providence home". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
- Anitra Ahtola – Biography – IMDb
- Providence submarine museum sinks – The Boston Globe
- "Juliett 484 News – WHAT HAPPPENED? [sic]". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2012-09-17.
- Photo of recovery operation.
- FOXNews.com – Sunken Submarine Becomes Training Ground for Navy and Army Divers
- Providence Journal Archived June 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- "Agreement Reached on Disposition of Russian Submarine". December 24, 2008. Archived from the original on June 1, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
- Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- "'K-19: The Widowmaker' sub must be removed from river: U.S. court". CTV News. The Associated Press. 2017-01-26. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to K-77 (submarine, 1965). |
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