B-159 "photo" taken by sonar
Posted on 04/06/2010 8:10:32 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
This eerie wreck image is not computer generated. It's the sonar image of Russian nuclear submarine B-159 (called K-159 before decommissioning), which has been lying 248m down in the Barents Sea, between Norway and Russia, since 2003. The Russian Federation hired Adus, a Scottish company that specialises in high-resolution sonar surveying, to evaluate if it would be possible to recover the wreck.
"The operation was complicated as the submarine was very deep, so we had to use the sonar equipment mounted on a remotely operated vehicle, (below)" says Martin Dean, the managing director of Adus and a forensic-wreck archaeologist. "We also had a problem with the surveying due to the density of north Atlantic cod attracted to the sound of the sonar and the light of the cameras. So at the beginning we had to turn off the equipment for 40 minutes and wait for the fish to go."
B-159, a November-class sub launched in 1963, was being towed to a shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, 1,000km north of St Petersburg, for scrapping when bad weather caused it to sink, killing nine crew.
"According to the sonar evidence, we can say that it sank stern first, headed down vertically and stuck 12m into the seabed, like a dart," says Dean. "The hull then snapped at the aft end and crashed to the seabed, leaving about 8m of the outer casing, including the propellers, still buried vertically in the seabed. Surprisingly, the submarine is still in good condition for a salvage."
(Excerpt) Read more at stumbleupon.com ...
Wow! That’s beautiful! Thanks for posting it.
No Problem
Looks like they left the starboard window open near the bow.
That would explain a lot.
That’s damn impressive.
Neat!
What a world we live in.
Too bad the bum is screwing us up.
Does that thing take “D” batteries, or “C’s”?
Snezhnogorsk?
Gesundheit!
The ripply stuff is anechoic coating. This boat was doomed from the start - primary coolant leak, never de-fueled, kept at a pier rotting, and then sent to sea with - I swear I’m not making this up - holes where her hull had rusted through. They never even went after the poor bustards who went down with her. It really, really, really sucked to be a Soviet submarine sailor.
It's the damn screen doors again.
Must have been for the tourists!
Are you suggesting that it's a long round hard object filled with seamen?
Maybe the can send in the Glomar Explorer ;)
Perhaps a little “sea mining” of manganese nodules.
There were SOVIET sailors in 2003???
A memorial to brave sailors.
I used to be in the ASW biz. This was a November class boat - if you know what I'm talking about no more need be said. If you don't, then nothing I can say is adequate.
Plus, if this sub was nuclear they all would have been dead from radiation by now anyway.
Old joke - The Russians must have been copying Polish designs.
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