Soviet submarine K-19
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"K19" redirects here. For the 2002 movie about an accident involving the submarine K-19, see K-19: The Widowmaker.
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 17 October 1958 |
| Launched: | 8 April 1959 |
| Commissioned: | 30 April 1961 |
| Decommissioned: | 1991 |
| Fate: | In October 2003 it was announced that scrapping would start at the Nerpa Shipyard "soon" |
| Stricken: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4030 tons surfaced, 5000 tons submerged |
| Length: | 114 m (374 ft) |
| Beam: | 9.2 m (30 ft) |
| Draft: | 7.1 m (23 ft) |
| Propulsion: | two 70 MW VM-A reactors powering two geared turbines connected to two shafts (39,200 shaft horsepower (29 MW)) |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h) surfaced, 26 knots (48 km/h) submerged |
| Range: | 35,700 miles (57,500 km) at 26 knots (48 km/h), 32,200 miles (51,800 km) at 24 knots (44 km/h) (80 % power) |
| Endurance: | 50 days (limited by food) |
| Depth: | 250 m (820 ft) test, 300 m (984 ft) design |
| Complement: | 125 officers and men |
| Armament: | 3 x ballistic nuclear missiles (650 km range, 1.4 megatons), 4 x 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes forward, 2 x 406 mm (16 in) tubes forward, 2 x 406 mm (16-inch) tubes aft |
K-19 was a Hotel class submarine which suffered various severe accidents. It was, however, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with ballistic nuclear missiles.
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[edit] Construction and commissioning
Construction of K-19 began 17 October 1958. The boat was christened 8 April 1959. Traditionally, vessels are christened by women, but K-19 was christened by a man. The bottle of champagne bounced off the boat without breaking, which the crew took as a bad omen. Even so, the boat was completed 12 November 1960 and commissioned 30 April 1961. During its completion, commissioning and preparations to get underway for its maiden trip, many lost their lives, leading to the K-19's nickname, Widowmaker.
[edit] Nuclear accident
On 4 July 1961, under the command of Captain First Rank Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev, K-19 was conducting exercises in the North Atlantic close to Southern Greenland when she developed a major leak in her reactor coolant system, causing the water pressure in the starboard reactor to drop to zero and causing failure of the coolant pumps. A separate accident had disabled her long-range radio system, so she could not contact Moscow. The reactor temperature rose uncontrollably, reaching 800 °C, almost the melting point of the fuel rods; despite Zateyev's and others' earlier requests, there was no backup cooling system installed. Even though a nuclear reactor accident cannot produce a nuclear explosion under any circumstances, the Captain apparently believed that an explosion in the nuclear reactor was possible, and might be interpreted by the United States as a preemptive strike and trigger a nuclear war[1], although he was more concerned about saving the ship and the crew. As the back-up system was never installed, Zateyev took a dramatic decision: A team of eight engineering officers and crew had to work for extended periods in high-radiation areas to implement a new coolant system by cutting off an air vent valve and welding a water-supplying pipe onto it. As the ship carried chemical suits instead of radiation suits, they were certain of being lethally contaminated, although they were not aware of it, believing the suits they wore would protect them. The released radioactive steam with fission products was sucked into the ventilation system and spread to other sections of the ship; the cooling water pumped from the reactor section worked well. The incident, however, together with the spreading by the ventilation system, contaminated the crew, parts of the ship, and some of the ballistic missiles carried onboard; the entire crew received substantial doses of radiation, and all eight men in the repair crew died of radiation exposure within a week. The captain decided to head south to meet the diesel submarines supposed to be there, instead of continuing on the planned route. Worry of a crew mutiny prompted Zateyev to have all small arms thrown overboard except for five pistols distributed to his most trusted officers. A diesel submarine, S-270 picked up K-19's low-power distress transmissions and rendezvoused with her. American warships nearby had also heard the transmission sent and offered to help, a rare event during the Cold War, but Zateyev, afraid of giving away Soviet military secrets to the West, refused and sailed to meet the S-270. Her crew was evacuated, and she was towed to the home base; after landing, the vessel contaminated a zone within 700 meters. The damaged reactors were removed and replaced, a process that took two years, combined with further radiation poisoning of the environment and involved labourers along the way.
During the repair process, it was discovered that the catastrophe had been caused by a drop from a welding electrode that had fallen into the first cooling circuit of the starboard reactor during her initial construction. K-19 returned to the fleet, now having acquired the additional nickname "Hiroshima".
On 1 February 2006 former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev proposed in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee that the crew of K-19 should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for their actions on 4 July 1961 [2]. In late March 2006, Nikolai Zateyev was formally nominated for the award.
[edit] Collision
On 15 November 1969, K-19 collided with USS Gato in the Barents Sea at a depth of 60 m (200 ft). She was able to surface by means of an emergency ballast tank blow. The impact completely destroyed the bow sonar systems and mangled the covers of the forward torpedo tubes. K-19 was again repaired and returned to the fleet.
[edit] Fire
On 24 February 1972 a fire broke out onboard K-19 while the submarine was at a depth of 120 m (380 ft) some 1300 km (800 miles) from Newfoundland. A total of 28 sailors died in the fire, caused by hydraulic fluid leaking onto a hot filter. The boat surfaced, and surface warships evacuated the crew except for 12 men trapped in the aft torpedo room. Towing was delayed by a gale, and the aft torpedo room could not be reached because of conditions in the engine room. After the gale abated, the boat was towed to Severomorsk on 4 April, and the men were rescued after surviving 24 days in the lightless, heatless torpedo room. The rescue operation lasted more than 40 days and involved over 30 ships. K-19 was again repaired and returned to the fleet.
[edit] Decommissioning
The submarine was decommissioned in 1991 and in 1994 transferred to the naval repair yard at Polyarny. In March 2002 she was towed to the Nerpa Shipyard, Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk to be scrapped. It was announced in October 2003 that scrapping would start soon.
In 2006, the K19 was purchased by Vladimir Romanov, who once served on the sub as a conscript, with the intention of "turn[ing] it into a Moscow-based meeting place to build links between submarine veterans from Russia, Scotland and other countries.[3]" So far, the plans remain dead letter, as many of the K-19's survivors objected to the plans intended.
[edit] Popular culture
The movie K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson is based on the story of the K-19.
[edit] External links
- K-19: the History (from National Geographic)
- K-19, prototype of Hollywood thriller, to be cut up (from Pravda)
| Hotel-class submarine |
|
K-16 | K-19 | K-33 | K-40 | K-55 | K-145 | K-149 Ukrainsky Komsomolets | K-178 |
| List of submarines of the Soviet Navy List of submarine classes of the Soviet Navy |
