A submarine nicknamed The Shark, which disappeared during the First World War, has been found by divers
The 400-ton craft, commissioned in 1911, was the biggest in the pre-revolutionary fleet and is though to be the first submarine in the world that was capable of firing a volley of several torpedoes. It was dispatched on a mission in 1915 with 35 sailors aboard but never returned to port.
Tanel Urm, an Estonian diver, and a companion found the wreck 30 yards below the surface while exploring a series of located – but unidentified – objects on the floor of the Baltic Sea off Estonia last month.
Russian and Latvian divers then joined for a fresh expedition with the Estonian team after hearing the sub had a blown-off nose cone and three distinctive propellers.
The Russian submarine was commissioned in 1911
The smashed nose of The Shark, and the fact that an external compass on the conning tower was not stowed, suggest the submarine was destroyed on the surface when it hit a German mine. It would have sunk swiftly because it had only one compartment stretching the length of the sub. The divers could not swim inside the wreck because of the damage.
Mr Bogdanov told The Telegraph he had informed Russia’s defence ministry of the find and he hoped the submarine would be declared a “brothers’ grave” – the final resting place of the men who perished inside.
“There is no point in raising the sub,” he said. “I hope we can put a memorial plaque in front and make it a place that can be visited on remembrance days or for educational diving trips.”
Source – The Telegraph
Submarine Diary 