The Oscar II-class Kursk was a Russian submarine at sea on maneuvers off Severomorsk on the 12th of August, 2000. Rumors are that the boat was testing a developmental torpedo when hell came to a very small place. The pictures below show what was brought up from the ocean floor by a Dutch consortium in 2001. Somewhere in that mess was a nuclear reactor, at least until it was extracted and towed away to the Kola Peninsula, alongside 50 other reactor compartments, floating pierside, waiting some idea of how to dispose of them.
The bow itself – or what was left of it after a chain reaction of torpedo warheads in the forward compartments – was sawed off using a tungsten-carbon cable prior to raising the boat.
The dead were buried in Russia, three of them so badly burned as to be known but to God.
It would be interesting to have context for some of those pictures of the mess that used to be a Russian sub. In the tiny frames of the post, most of that could be mistaken for the residue of my last remodeling attempt…….
It is amazing the amount of destruction. And how an incredible piece of engineering to some, a home to others, can be reduced to what we see here. Those on board deserved a more fitting end. Kind of has the same feel as the photos of the Oklahoma when they pulled her back over.
May their souls rest in eternal peace.
Reminds one of the loss of USS SCORPION in 1967. There are still theories that say one of her own Mk-37 torpedoes was the cause of SCORPION’s loss with all hands, although that cannot be proven with any certainty.
God Bless them all.
USS SCORPION wreck photos @
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-s/ssn589-k.htm
USS THRESHER @
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/ssn593.htm
Although at one time enemies, they were but sailors like us doing the job they had. I still think it was criminal of the government there not to call on for international help sooner than they did. Some of the old pride takes a while to wear off. And Putin didn’t leave from his vacation on the Black Sea for at least 4-5 days after the incident happened.
Fortunately they did learn a lesson and asked for help in Aug 2005 when one of their minusubs was in trouble in the Pacific. With British and US help, all survived. I liked briefing that event better.
Original Pic site for the Russophile
http://community.livejournal.com/warhistory/844960.html
Google translated with some descriptions of the pics as requested
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.livejournal.com%2Fwarhistory%2F844960.html&langpair=ru%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
PS. Sorry Lex, I keep forgetting the HTML tricks you gave before