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Sunken Soviet sub needs buyer _ or it's scrapped (A late Christmas gift for me?)
Philly.Com ^ | 12/24/08 | eric tucker

Posted on 12/25/2008 10:22:40 AM PST by llevrok

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film and sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it, the president of the foundation that owns it said Wednesday.

The 282-foot submarine, also known as Juliett 484, began serving as a floating educational museum in 2002, until it went down during a powerful nor'easter in April 2007.

Army and Navy dive crews raised the sub in a training exercise last July, and inspections showed the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater.

Restoring it to an operational museum would have cost more than $1 million, said Frank Lennon, director of the Russian Sub Museum and president of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

"Based on the input we received from experts, the cost of restoring it was beyond our capabilities," Lennon said.

A local company, Rhode Island Metals Recycling, LLC, has agreed to move the sub downriver and eventually dismantle it for scrap metal if no one offers to buy it intact by the end of January.

"We remain hopeful that someone will step forward who might be interested in taking over the stewardship of this very interesting Cold War relic," Lennon said.

The sub, alternatively designated as K-77, was launched in 1965 as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet. The Juliett class was initially planned as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States and later tracked U.S. aircraft carriers.

The sub was used in the 1990s as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and as a set for the 2002 Harrison Ford movie "K-19: The Widowmaker" before being acquired by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation.

It opened as a museum in Providence in 2002 and drew tens of thousands of tourists over the years.

Lennon said the museum would remove artifacts such as periscopes, torpedo tube doors, missile firing stations and other items before the sub is dismantled.

He said he had received inquiries about the sub, including one from an Australian group that wanted to sink it and use it as a reef, but no serious offers.


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs

Driven only on week ends by a little old Commie from Minsk.....

1 posted on 12/25/2008 10:22:40 AM PST by llevrok
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To: llevrok
A late Christmas gift for me?)

From the article:

inspections showed the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater.

No....you deserve to have a nice, modern sub in perfect condition  :-)

2 posted on 12/25/2008 10:29:32 AM PST by Stoat (Palin / Coulter 2012: A Strong America Through Unapologetic Conservatism)
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To: SunkenCiv

re: Sunken Soviet sub

Sunken Civ, I thought of you when I saw this title. Not that it fits within any of your cool ping lists, it just sounds close to your login name.

Merry Christmas


3 posted on 12/25/2008 10:35:05 AM PST by Kevmo ( It's all over for this Country as a Constitutional Republic. ~Leo Donofrio, 12/14/08)
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To: llevrok

Still have the original album and it hasn't deteriorated!

4 posted on 12/25/2008 10:36:06 AM PST by Young Werther (Julius Caesar (Quae Cum Ita Sunt. Since these things are so.))
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To: Stoat; Doohickey; SmithL; patton
Gee.

I wonder if anybody suspected that THAT might have happened.

I was going to hope that somebody could get this relic to a real submarine museum, or get it on display to show how the Soviet war machine really worked (or didn't work!) during the cold war - but after 15 months underwater ????

It would be cheaper to buy a fresh one.

5 posted on 12/25/2008 10:42:40 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: llevrok

So it was once used as a restaurant? Sounds like a great concept,

Call it ; Torpedo Bar & Grill or Subs R’ Us.


6 posted on 12/25/2008 10:48:25 AM PST by eaglestar
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To: Kevmo; SunkenCiv

You’re thinking “Sunken Sieve”...


7 posted on 12/25/2008 10:48:29 AM PST by null and void (Petroglyphs. The original cliff's notes...)
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To: Kevmo; SunkenCiv; neverdem; cogitator
SunkenCiv

re: Sunken Soviet sub

Sunken Civ, I thought of you when I saw this title.

Er, uhm, no.

See, The SunkCiv only pings about old, fallen, decrepit old civilizations that have fallen into the dustbin of history and can only be represented by their dusty old ruins.

The Soviet Union's war machines represent a new, fallen, decrepit tried-to-be civilization that had fallen into the dustbin of history and can only be represented by their muddy new ruins.

Now, the cogitator pings about old, naturally falling (sometimes muddy) waters that impinge on old fallen rocks in many old countries around the world.... Fallen submarines under muddy waters is more up his balliwick. 8<)

8 posted on 12/25/2008 10:48:53 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
I wonder if anybody suspected that THAT might have happened.

It's sad...I suppose that they didn't / couldn't do appropriate maintenance / repairs on the outside hatches and fittings on the hull and they lost their watertight integrity.  Hopefully it was not a case similar to what happened here in The People's Republic of Washington some years ago, where a Department of Transportation worker, while doing maintenance at a water-level area of a FLOATING bridge, left one or more of the access hatches open right before a big wind kicked up.  Yes, the water went into the maintenance hatch filling up the floatation pontoon and the entire bridge sank.....billions of dollars to replace.  I don't believe that the DOT worker was ever publicly identified....he/she was most likely promoted shortly thereafter.

It would be cheaper to buy a fresh one.

I've seen aircraft carriers and old Soviet-era fighter jets come up for sale on eBay....you never know :-)

9 posted on 12/25/2008 10:54:22 AM PST by Stoat (Palin / Coulter 2012: A Strong America Through Unapologetic Conservatism)
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To: llevrok

“A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film...”

I believe the Golf and Hotel classes were not “cruise missile” but Ballistic missile subs.


10 posted on 12/25/2008 11:17:26 AM PST by Wildbill22
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
It would be cheaper to buy a fresh one.

From what I hear, the one's still in service aren't much better.

11 posted on 12/25/2008 11:19:10 AM PST by uglybiker (1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d 2 g3t l41d)
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To: llevrok
including one from an Australian group that wanted to sink it and use it as a reef, but no serious offers.

I'm sure they were serious when they made the offer.

12 posted on 12/25/2008 11:20:36 AM PST by mhx
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To: llevrok

13 posted on 12/25/2008 11:28:04 AM PST by JoeProBono ( Loose Associations - Postcards from My Mind)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

How did the idiots manage to let it sink at the pier, I wonder?


14 posted on 12/25/2008 11:41:19 AM PST by patton (T)
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To: llevrok

A little old commmunist lady WOULD HAVE only driven it to market once a week, but since the market never had any food....


15 posted on 12/25/2008 12:13:38 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: patton

Somebody left the screen door open. :)


16 posted on 12/25/2008 2:15:28 PM PST by sig226 (1/21/12 . . . He's not my president . . . Impeach Obama . . . whatever)
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To: Kevmo; null and void; Robert A. Cook, PE; blam; gleeaikin; Fred Nerks

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Heh, I love this place.
the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater
Oh yeah, that's a selling point, eh? If it were one of those deep-diving subs that could be useful for poking around and recovering artifacts from 2000 feet or better -- and I had the cash -- I'd be there writin' the check tomorrow. Guess I'll have to settle for adding this to the catalog, but not pinging the list. ;')

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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· The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


17 posted on 12/26/2008 7:46:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, December 6, 2008 !!!)
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