The loss of Royal Navy battleship HMS Victoria “on this day in history” 22 June 1893 following collision with HMS Camperdown.
Oil on canvas by A. R. D. Ligmore.
Victoria’s wreck lays off Tripoli, Lebanon.
Victoria sank in just 13-minutes, slipping into the water bow first.The men in the engine room never received orders to abandon ship and went down with her. Other men in the water were sucked down with the ship. Of her ship’s company, 357 were rescued and 358 lost.
USS Oriskany (CV-34/CVA-34) was an Essex-class aircraft carrier in service with the US Navy from 1950 to 1976. After decommissioning, Oriskany was laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Facility at Bremerton, WA. The Navy announced on 5 April 2004, that it would transfer the former aircraft carrier to the State of Florida for use as an artificial reef. Towed to Pensacola, Oriskany was sunk with explosive charges on May 17, 2006. She now forms an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico.
USS Oriskany (CVA 34) laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Puget Sound, Bremerton in 1990. Moored alongside are USS Hornet (CVS 12), USS Bennington (CVS 20) and USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA 31). VIRIN: DN-SC-90-03975.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) at Pensacola, Florida January 1, 2005. VIRIN: 050111-N-GS507-010.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) is towed out to sea May 15, 2006. VIRIN: 060515-N-JC459-007.
Explosives detonate aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) in the Gulf of Mexico during SINKEX to create an artificial reef on June 17, 2006. VIRIN: 060517-N-JC459-001.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) sinks in the Gulf of Mexico 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Florida during SINKEX to create an artificial reef, June 17, 2006. VIRIN: 060517-N-JC459-009.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) sinks in the Gulf of Mexico 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Florida during SINKEX to create an artificial reef, June 17, 2006. VIRIN: 060517-N-GO804-010.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) sinks in the Gulf of Mexico 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Florida during SINKEX to create an artificial reef, June 17, 2006. VIRIN: 060517-N-GO804-011.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA 34) sinks in the Gulf of Mexico 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Florida during SINKEX to create an artificial reef, June 17, 2006. VIRIN: 060517-N-JC459-014.
Divers on main deck of sunken aircraft carrier / artificial reef USS Oriskay (CVA 34) in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 July, 2007. Divers are PS1 K. Arnold (USN) and MAJ S. Phelps (US Army). VIRIN: 070706-O-TW583-002.
The Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship USS New Orleans (LPH-11) was decomissioned in 1997 and mothballed at Suisun Bay until 2006. She was moved to Pearl Harbor in 2006 to prep for disposal via SINKEX, and was finally sunk during RIMPAC 2010.
Decommissioned USS New Orleans (LPH 11) taking fire during SINKEX, July 10, 2010.
New Orleans begins to roll during SINKEX, RIMPAC 2010.
New Orleans takes fire from a line of surface combat ships, July 10, 2010.
New Orleans begins to sink after being engaged by the Australian navy frigate HMAS Warramunga (FFH 152) with her 5-inch gun.
New Orleans rolls on its side and begins to sink after being impacted by rounds fired from several ships.
Decommissoned US Navy amphibious assault ship USS New Orleans (LPH 11) slips below the surface at the conclusion of SINKEX, July 10, 2010.
New Orleans sunk on July 10, 2010 approx. 70-miles NW of Kauai, Hawaii.
On October 15, 1863 the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sank during a test dive in Charleston harbour, South Carolina, killing its inventor Horace L. Hunley and 7 crewmen. The Confederate navy salvaged the submarine and returned it to service (only to sink again in February 1864).
K-159 was a November-class (Project 627A) nuclear-powered attack submarine built by Sevmash and commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1963. Decommissioned in 1989, K-159 was laid up at Gremikha for 14-years as a rusting unmaintained hulk… with her reactors still fueled. When she foundered while under tow to Polyarny on 28 August 2003, K-159 sank in 780-ft (238-metres) with 9 of her crew and 800 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel aboard.
Ten years on, no plan to lift sunken nuclear sub
Last photo: This is how K-159 was looking when she was fastened to the pontoons supposed to keep the submarine floating while being towed from Gremikha on August 28, 2003. On the night to August 30, K-159 sank. (Photo: Courtesy of Bellona Foundation.)
K-159, the rust bucket of a nuclear powered submarine that sank off the coast of Russia’s Kola Peninsula on August 30, 2003, remains on the seabed in one of the best fishing areas for cod.
There are still no definite plans to lift the rusty November-class submarine from the depth of 238 meters in the Barents Sea. K-159 sank during towing from Gremikha naval base towards Polyarny shipyard northwest of Murmansk. The initial plan was to lift the submarine in autumn 2004.
In 2007, the St. Petersburg based design and engineering company Malakhit got the order to prepare a lifting plan. A decision would be taken in the beginning of 2008. That is five years ago. Nothing has happened since and no one is longer talking loudly about concrete steps on how to lift the submarine.
Nine of K-159’s crew members went down with the submarine after one of the pontoons that kept her floating was ripped away. Onboard, the two nuclear reactors still contain 800 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel with an estimated amount of radioactivity of some 600,000 Curie.
The waters outside the Kildin island, where K-159 sank, is one of the best joint fishing areas for Norwegian, Russian trawlers and consequently possible leakages of radioactivity concerns both countries. Ingar Amundsen is head of section for international nuclear safety with the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority.
“It is reported that no serious leakage from the submarine is observed so far and that measurements close to the sub indicate only background activity levels. Our bilateral marine monitoring program does not show elevated levels of radioactivity in the water,” says Ingar Amundsen to BarentsObserver.
Still, Amundsen is concerned about the future.
“K-159 sank under tragic circumstances ten years ago. The nuclear submarine contains spent nuclear fuel in its reactor and therefore represents a potential source or radioactive contamination in the future,” says Amundsen. He continues: “We are in dialogue with the Russian party to increase the monitoring activities in these areas. We also look at what risks objects in the Arctic containing spent nuclear fuel may possess to the Arctic environment.”
Last October, BarentsObserver reported that K-159 was included in a revised draft strategy developed to clean Russia’s Arctic areas. The problem is that Russia today doesn’t have the capacity to do such lifting operation on its own. When the ill-fated “Kursk” submarine was lifted from the bottom of the Barents Sea in 2002, the operation was led by a consortium of European companies headed by the Dutch salvage giant Mammoet.
“Potential lifting of K-159 or other objects in the Arctic is a Russian responsibility,” says Ingar Amundsen. “We have informed the Russian party that the marine resources in the North is of great interest to us, and that we continue to gain knowledge about status of contamination and potential risks in the future, he says.
This year’s quota for North East Arctic cod is 940,000 tonnes and scientists recommend increasing the quota further to 993,000 tonnes for 2014, as previously reported by BarentsObserver.
K-159 had been laid up in Gremikha since 1989 and her hull was rusted through in many places already before the disastrous towing started. How ten years at the sea bed have speeded the corrosion of the hull on the 50 years old submarine is unclear. No underwater photos of the submarine have been published after 2003.
http://barentsobserver.com/en/security/2013/08/ten-years-no-plan-lift-sunken-nuclear-sub-28-08
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when the Indian delegation arrives at the Admiralty Shipyard?
The Russians have already insisted that the explosion could not possibly be their fault, because we all know how reliable Russian technology is… right? So telling the Indians to their face that clearly they’re to blame should be interesting.
India wants Russia to help raise sunken submarine
Photo: EPA
Indian and Russian officials are discussing options for raising Russian-built Indian diesel-electric submarine Sindhurakshak, which caught fire after a series of explosions on board and sank off Mumbai on August 14, killing all its crew of 18, said a source close to Russia’s shipbuilding industry.
There remain unexploded torpedoes on board, which is an obstacle to raising Sindhurakshak, the source said.
Indian Navy officials have asked for technological and physical help in bringing up the submarine from the seafloor but neither the Russian government nor any Russian firm has received any official request for this from India.
United Shipbuilding Corporation declined to comment, while a spokesman for Admiralty Shipyard, which built Sindhurakshak, said that an Indian delegation was due to visit the shipyard on Friday but did not disclose what would be discussed during the visit.
One explanation of the Mumbai accident that has been offered is that the first explosion was caused by high concentration of hydrogen in an accumulator in the head compartment, which is next to the torpedo unit.
India received Project 877EKM Sindhurakshak in 1997.
A fire on board the vessel in 2010 that was caused by a hydrogen explosion killed one of the sailors.
The submarine was repaired and modernized at Russia’s Zvyozdochka shipyard in 2010-2012.
Russian experts still denied access to sunken Indian sub
A group of Russian experts from the Zvyozdochka ship repair center have not been allowed to visit the site of India’s sunken Sindhurakshak submarine in Mumbai, Zvyozdochka’s official spokeswoman Nadezhda Shcherbinina confirmed to the Voice of Russia.
“They may not be allowed to visit in principle,” she said.
“This is a prerogative of the country that owns the ship. We have contacted our warrantee group in Mumbai. They remain at their hotel. They have not been invited, so to say. They may be or may not be invited to participate.”
Earlier, Russian media reported, citing an unnamed source, that the Russian experts had been granted access to the sunken submarine.
Voice of Russia, Interfax
gCaptain has new details on a the recent sinking of a ferry in the Philippines that may have taken the lives of almost 300.
This brings to mind what is regarded by many as the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history, the sinking of the Philippine ferryMV Doña Paz in 1987. The actual number of persons on board is unknown but it is estimated that 4,375 died. There were only 24 survivors from the ship.
There is an eight part dramatization of the disaster on YouTube totaling about 47 minutes. The first and last segments are probably the most interesting. The first seven parts are here and the eighth is here.
Naval Matters 