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These cartridges appear to have been the cause of death; a sailor appears to have accidentally brought a cartridge in contact with the sea water, causing a chemical reaction and a flash fire. The official investigation into the disaster showed some men appeared to have survived the fire by plunging under the water. (Fire marks on the walls indicate the water was at waist level in the lower area at this time.) However, the fire rapidly used up the remaining [[oxygen]] in the air, causing death by asphyxiation.<ref name="RM">{{cite book|last=Moore|first=Robert|title=A Time to Die – The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy|publisher=Crown Publishers, Random House|location=New York|year=2003|pages=65–66|isbn=0-609-61000-7|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=917851}}</ref>
These cartridges appear to have been the cause of death; a sailor appears to have accidentally brought a cartridge in contact with the sea water, causing a chemical reaction and a flash fire. The official investigation into the disaster showed some men appeared to have survived the fire by plunging under the water. (Fire marks on the walls indicate the water was at waist level in the lower area at this time.) However, the fire rapidly used up the remaining [[oxygen]] in the air, causing death by asphyxiation.<ref name="RM">{{cite book|last=Moore|first=Robert|title=A Time to Die – The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy|publisher=Crown Publishers, Random House|location=New York|year=2003|pages=65–66|isbn=0-609-61000-7|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=917851}}</ref>


While the tragedy of ''Kursk'' played out in the Far North, Russia's then President [[Vladimir Putin]], though immediately informed of the tragedy, waited for five days before he broke a [[holiday]] at a presidential resort house in subtropical [[Sochi]] on the Black Sea before commenting publicly on the loss of the pride of the Northern Fleet. A year later he said: "I probably should have returned to Moscow, but nothing would have changed. I had the same level of communication both in Sochi and in Moscow, but from a PR point of view I could have demonstrated some special eagerness to return."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1487112.stm ''Spectre of Kursk haunts Putin'' &ndash; BBC News, 12 August 2001].Retrieved on 8 August 2007</ref>
While the tragedy of ''Kursk'' played out in the Far North, Russia's then President [[Vladimir Putin]], though immediately informed of the tragedy, waited for five days before he broke a [[holiday]] at a presidential resort house in [[Sochi]] on the Black Sea before commenting publicly on the loss of the pride of the Northern Fleet. A year later he said: "I probably should have returned to Moscow, but nothing would have changed. I had the same level of communication both in Sochi and in Moscow, but from a PR point of view I could have demonstrated some special eagerness to return."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1487112.stm ''Spectre of Kursk haunts Putin'' &ndash; BBC News, 12 August 2001].Retrieved on 8 August 2007</ref>


== Raising ==
== Raising ==

Revision as of 18:30, 29 November 2012

An Oscar II class submarine drawing
History
Russia
NameK-141 Kursk
NamesakeNamed after the Russian city Kursk
Laid down1992
Launched1994
CommissionedDecember 1994
StrickenAugust 2000
FateSank 12 August 2000 with 118 hands in 100 m (330 ft) of water in Barents Sea
StatusRaised from the seafloor, towed to shipyard, and dismantled
General characteristics
Class and typeOscar II class submarine
Displacement13,400 to 16,400 tonnes (13,200 to 16,100 long tons; 14,800 to 18,100 short tons)[clarification needed]
Length154.0 m (505.2 ft)
Beam18.2 m (60 ft)
Draft9.0 m (29.5 ft)
Propulsion2 OK-650b nuclear reactors , 2 steam turbines, two 7-bladed propellers
Speed32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) submerged, 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) surfaced
Test depth300 to 500 metres (980 to 1,640 ft) (by various estimates)
Complement44 officers, 68 enlisted
Armament24 × SS-N-19/P-700 Granit, 4 × 533 mm (21.0 in) and 2 × 650 mm (26 in) torpedo tubes (bow)
NotesHome port: Vidyaevo, Russia

K-141 Kursk was an Oscar-II class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine of the Russian Navy, lost with all hands when it sank in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000. Kursk, full name Атомная подводная лодка «Курск», which, translated, means the nuclear powered submarine "Kursk" [АПЛ "Курск"] in Russian, was a Project 949A Антей (Antey, Antaeus, also known by its NATO reporting name of Oscar II). It was named after the Russian city Kursk, around which the largest tank battle in military history, the Battle of Kursk, took place in 1943. One of the first vessels completed after the end of the Soviet Union, it was commissioned into the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet.

Background

Work on building Kursk began in 1990 at Severodvinsk, near Arkhangelsk. Launched in 1994, it was commissioned in December of that year. It was the penultimate Oscar II class submarine designed and approved in the Soviet era. At 154 m (505 ft 3 in) long[clarification needed] and four stories[clarification needed] high, she was the largest attack submarine ever built. The outer hull, made of high-nickel, high-chrome content stainless steel 8.5 millimetres (0.33 in) thick, had exceptionally good resistance to corrosion and a weak magnetic signature which helped prevent detection by magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) systems. There was a 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) gap to the 50.8 millimetres (2.00 in)-thick steel pressure hull.[1]

Kursk was part of Russia's Northern Fleet, which had suffered funding cutbacks throughout the 1990s. Many of its submarines were anchored and rusting in Andreyeva Bay, 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Murmansk.[2] Little work to maintain all but the most essential front-line equipment, including search and rescue equipment, had occurred. Northern Fleet sailors had gone unpaid in the mid-1990s. The end of the decade saw something of a renaissance for the fleet; in 1999, Kursk carried out a successful reconnaissance mission in the Mediterranean, tracking the United States Sixth Fleet during the Kosovo War. August 2000's training exercise was to have been the largest summer drill — nine years after the Soviet Union's collapse — involving four attack submarines, the fleet's flagship Pyotr Velikiy ("Peter the Great") and a flotilla of smaller ships.

Explosion

Main article: Russian submarine Kursk explosion

Kursk sortied on an exercise to fire practice torpedoes at the Kirov-class battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy. These practice torpedoes had no explosive warheads, and were therefore manufactured and tested to a much lower quality standard. [3] On 12 August 2000, at 11:28 local time (07:28 UTC), there was an explosion while preparing to fire.[4] The only credible report to date is this was due to the failure and explosion of one of the Kursk's hydrogen peroxide-fueled Type 65 torpedoes.[5] It is believed HTP, a form of highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide used as propellant for the torpedo, seeped through rust in the torpedo casing. (A similar explosion caused by an HTP-fuelled torpedo was responsible for the loss of HMS Sidon in 1955.)[6]

The explosion produced a blast equal to 100–250 kilograms (220–550 lb) of TNT and registered 2.2 on the Richter scale. The submarine sank in relatively shallow water, bottoming at 108 metres (354 ft) about 135 kilometres (84 mi) off Severomorsk, at 69°40′N 37°35′E / 69.667°N 37.583°E / 69.667; 37.583. A second explosion, 135 seconds after the initial event, measured between 3.5 and 4.4 on the Richter scale, equivalent to 3-7 tons of TNT.[7] One of those explosions blew large pieces of debris back through the submarine.

Rescue attempts

Though rescue attempts were offered by the British and Norwegian teams, Russia declined initial rescue offers. All 118 sailors and officers aboard Kursk perished. The Russian Admiralty at first suggested most of the crew died within minutes of the explosion; however, the motivations for making the claim are considered by outside observers[who?] as political since some of the sailors had time to write notes.

Captain Lieutenant Dmitriy Kolesnikov, one of the survivors of the first explosion, survived in Compartment 9 at the very stern of the boat after blasts destroyed the forward spaces of the submarine. Recovery workers found notes on his body. They showed 23 sailors (out of 118 aboard) had waited in the dark with him.

There has been much debate over how long the sailors might have survived. Some, particularly on the Russian side, say they would have died very quickly; water is known to leak into a stationary Oscar-II craft through the propeller shafts. Others point out that many potassium superoxide chemical cartridges, used to absorb carbon dioxide and chemically release oxygen to enable survival, were found used when the craft was recovered, suggesting some of the crew survived for several days. Kolesnikov's last note has a time of 15:15, indicating that he and the others in the aft compartment lived at least four hours after the explosion.[8]

These cartridges appear to have been the cause of death; a sailor appears to have accidentally brought a cartridge in contact with the sea water, causing a chemical reaction and a flash fire. The official investigation into the disaster showed some men appeared to have survived the fire by plunging under the water. (Fire marks on the walls indicate the water was at waist level in the lower area at this time.) However, the fire rapidly used up the remaining oxygen in the air, causing death by asphyxiation.[9]

While the tragedy of Kursk played out in the Far North, Russia's then President Vladimir Putin, though immediately informed of the tragedy, waited for five days before he broke a holiday at a presidential resort house in Sochi on the Black Sea before commenting publicly on the loss of the pride of the Northern Fleet. A year later he said: "I probably should have returned to Moscow, but nothing would have changed. I had the same level of communication both in Sochi and in Moscow, but from a PR point of view I could have demonstrated some special eagerness to return."[10]

Raising

Submarine wreck after the disaster

A consortium formed by the Dutch companies Mammoet and Smit International[11] using the barge Giant 4 eventually raised Kursk and recovered the dead,[12] who were buried in Russia – although three of the bodies were too badly burned to be identified. The heat generated by the first blast detonated the warheads on 5 to 7 torpedoes[13] causing a series of blasts big enough to be measured on a geological seismometer in the area – and those secondary explosions fatally damaged the vessel.

Major concerns existed throughout the salvage operations relating to the armed cruise missiles remaining in the silo compartments, the risk of detonation of unaccounted-for torpedo and torpedo charge fragments, and recriticality or radioactive release from the two nuclear propulsion reactors on board. The London-based nuclear consultant John Large undertook the risk and hazard assessment, adapting this as further facts came to light throughout the salvage period.[14]

Russian officials strenuously denied claims that the sub's Granit cruise missiles[15] were carrying nuclear warheads, and no evidence has been provided to the contrary. When the salvage operation raised the boat in 2001, there were considerable fears that preparing to move the wreck could trigger explosions, because the bow was cut off in the process, using a tungsten carbide-studded cable. This tool had the potential to cause sparks which would ignite remaining pockets of volatile gases, such as hydrogen. The successfully recovered portion of Kursk was towed to Severomorsk and placed in a floating dry dock where extensive forensic analysis was accomplished.

The remains of Kursk's reactor compartment were towed to Sayda Bay on Russia's northern Kola Peninsula – where more than 50 reactor compartments were afloat at pier points – after a shipyard had defuelled the boat in early 2003.[16] The rest of the boat was then dismantled.

In the end the bow was not recovered and was destroyed by explosives in 2002. Only small pieces of the bow were recovered (some torpedo and torpedo tube fragments etc.)

See also

References

  1. ^ N. A. "Kursk Inner Hull Breached." Australian, The (n.d.): Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 7 December 2011.
  2. ^ Andreyeva Bay is a ticking bomb, Bellona’s documents prove – Rashid Alimov, Bellona Foundation, Oslo, 7 June 2007. Retrieved on 8 August 2007.
  3. ^ Dikkenberg, John. "Raising the Kursk." Sydney Morning Herald. 19 October 2001: 15. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 7 December 2011.
  4. ^ Debra Rosenberg et al. "A Mystery In The Deep." Newsweek 136.9 (2000): 34. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 December 2011.
  5. ^ Sviatov, George. "The Kursk's Loss Offers Lessons." U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, 129.6 (2003): 71. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 December 2011.
  6. ^ Marshall, Geoff (July 2008 - Volume 28 Number 4), "The Loss of the HMS Sidon", In Depth, Submarines Association Australia, retrieved 2 September 2010 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "template" (PDF). Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  8. ^ "Pravda", 12 August 2010
  9. ^ Moore, Robert (2003). A Time to Die – The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy. New York: Crown Publishers, Random House. pp. 65–66. ISBN 0-609-61000-7.
  10. ^ Spectre of Kursk haunts Putin – BBC News, 12 August 2001.Retrieved on 8 August 2007
  11. ^ Smit website on salvage project of Kursk, visited 12 Februari, 2012
  12. ^ Spitz, D.J. (2006): Investigation of Bodies in Water. In: Spitz, W.U. & Spitz, D.J. (eds): Spitz and Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations (Fourth edition), Charles C. Thomas, pp.: 846-881; Springfield, Illinois.
  13. ^ Raising the Kursk television show by the National Geographic Show
  14. ^ http://www.largeassociates.com/KurskRINA.pdf Risks and Hazards in Recovering the Nuclear Submarine Kursk – John H Large (Large & Associates), Warships - Naval Submarines 8, Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Conf, London, 23–24 June 2005
  15. ^ The Secret of the Kursk's Weapons – Dmitry Safronov (of Kommersant daily), Strana.ru, 10 September 2002.Retrieved on 8 August 2007.
  16. ^ Defuelled Kursk will join submarine graveyard – Igor Kukrik, Bellona Foundation, Oslo, 3 March 2003.Retrieved on 8 August 2007.

Books

  • Gary Weir and Walter Boyne (2003), Rising Tide: The untold story of the Russian submarines that fought the Cold War, Basic Books, NY, NY.
  • Ramsey Flynn (2004), Cry from the Deep: The Submarine Disaster That Riveted the World and Put the New Russia to the Ultimate Test, Harper Collins.
  • Dunmore, S. (2002). Lost Subs : From the Hunley to the Kursk, the greatest submarines ever lost-and found. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-81140-5

Music

  • Russian band DDT or ДДТ wrote a song called Kapitan Kolesnikov, or Капитан Колесников about the Kursk.
  • "Barren the Sea" - song about the incident, by Sequoya
  • Scottish band Mogwai wrote the song Travel Is Dangerous about the tragedy from the viewpoint of the men who perished on board the Kursk.
  • Swedish heavy metal wolf wrote a song called K-141 Kursk detailing the events of the disaster
  • Canadian musician Loscil wrote a song called Kursk - an ambient music piece on his album, Submers - an album dedicated to different submarines.
  • English musician Matt Elliott wrote the song The Kursk about the thoughts of a man trapped in the sinked ship.

Theatre

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