RUSSIAN SUB SINKS!
And now for a sea story that hits close to home (or, for many of you, a former home)
Yes, a few weeks ago, during a spring nor'easter, the RUSSIAN SUB MUSEUM SANK into the Providence bay! I would have posted this sooner, except that it has only just come to my attention. For some reason, this event did not receive much publicity...if you ask me, such lack of interest in the local Soviet-era sea-themed tourism industry does not reflect well on the Providence citizenry.
Meanwhile, the lovely staff at the Russian Sub Museum seems to be taking it all in stride. I like their snappy "Nothing can keep a Russian Sub down" attitude.
Loose lips may sink ships, but seasoned submarine docents can certainly warm one's heart.
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."
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?"
Yes, a few weeks ago, during a spring nor'easter, the RUSSIAN SUB MUSEUM SANK into the Providence bay! I would have posted this sooner, except that it has only just come to my attention. For some reason, this event did not receive much publicity...if you ask me, such lack of interest in the local Soviet-era sea-themed tourism industry does not reflect well on the Providence citizenry.
Meanwhile, the lovely staff at the Russian Sub Museum seems to be taking it all in stride. I like their snappy "Nothing can keep a Russian Sub down" attitude.
Loose lips may sink ships, but seasoned submarine docents can certainly warm one's heart.
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."
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?"
posted by C. Q. Cumber | 3:54 PM
5 Comments:
Hmmm, this "Damonise" guy sounds suspicious...I don't like his "Sunken Sub Museum: insouciance. Slime line, indeed.
And we never had our field trip!
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"
I never knew.
Yes--the K-19 thing is a big deal over at the Russian Sub Museum.
The Russian Sub folks, however, do not appreciate people calling their sub a "set" for K-19.
According to the placards posted inside the "museum" (and Allan will back me up on this) the Providence sub "starred" in K-19, the Widowmaker--a subtle distinction, but one worth noting indeed.
Yes--the sub people
For my part I'm glad the nor'easter finally finished the job of sinking the Russiasn Sub, after our best and brightest spent the Cold War trying to finish her off. Who's laughing now, Brezhnev!
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