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.

Not to be confused with Soviet submarine K-219.

Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	17 October 1958
Launched:	8 April 1959
Commissioned:	30 April 1961
Decommissioned:	1991
Fate:	Purchased by Vladimir Romanov
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 the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with ballistic nuclear missiles.

1 Construction and commissioning
2 Nuclear accident
3 Crew
4 Collision
5 Fire
6 Decommissioning
7 Popular culture
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Construction and commissioning

Construction of K-19 began on 17 October 1958. The submarine was christened on 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. The boat was completed on 12 November 1960 and commissioned on 30 April 1961.

During its completion, commissioning, and preparations to get underway for its maiden voyage, many lost their lives, leading to the K-19's nickname Hiroshima.^[1] (In the movie K-19: The Widowmaker, the nickname Widowmaker was used.)

[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 aft 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 and the chain reactions continued despite the control rods being inserted via a SCRAM mechanism, the reactor continued to heat up as coolant is still required during shutdown until the reactions eventually slow down. Despite Zateyev's and others' earlier requests, no backup cooling system had been installed.

The captain was concerned that the nuclear emissions resulting from the accident – and any possible explosion – might be interpreted by the United States as a pre-emptive strike and trigger a nuclear war. The captain was also very keen to save the ship and his crew.

As a cooling back-up system had not been installed, Zateyev made a drastic decision: a team of seven engineering officers and crew worked 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 into it. Since the ship carried chemical suits instead of radiation suits, they were certain to be lethally contaminated, although they were not aware of it, believing the suits they wore would protect them. The released radioactive steam, containing fission products, was drawn into the ventilation system and spread to other sections of the ship. However, the cooling water pumped from the reactor section worked well.

The incident contaminated the crew, parts of the ship, and some of the ballistic missiles carried on board; the entire crew received substantial doses of radiation, and all seven men in the repair crew died of radiation exposure within a week, and twenty more within the next few years. The captain decided to head south to meet diesel submarines expected to be there, instead of continuing on the mission's planned route. Worries about a potential 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 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 the boat was towed to the home base; after landing, the vessel contaminated a zone within 700 metres. The damaged reactors were removed and replaced, a process which took two years. During this time there was further radiation poisoning of the environment and the workers involved.

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 aft 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 [1]. In late March 2006, Nikolai Zateyev was formally nominated for the award.

[edit] Crew

Crew members of К-19 who died in accident on 4 July 1961:

Chief Starshina Boris Ryzhikov (Борис Рыжиков)
Starshina, 1st class Yury Ordochkin (Юрий Ордочкин)
Starshina, 2nd class Evgeny Kashenkov (Евгений Кашенков)
Seaman Semyon Penkov (Семен Пеньков)
Seaman Nicolai Savkin (Николай Савкин)
Seaman Valery Charitonov (Валерий Харитонов)
Seaman Genady Starkov (Геннадий Старков)
Commander of БЧ-5 (UU-5 - urgent unit five) engineer-mechanic Captain, 3rd rank Anatoly Kozyryev (Анатолий Козырев)
Commander of the division of movement Captain Lieutenant Yury Povstyev (Юрий Повстьев)

[edit] Collision

On 15 November 1969 at 07:13 AM, K-19 collided with the attack submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea at a depth of 60 m (200 ft). She was able to surface by means of an emergency main 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.

During this accident, the Gato was able to lay down on the ocean floor. One of the US torpedo officers decided to fire on the K-19 using an anti-submarine torpedo as he thought that the K19 had attacked the USS Gato, but the captain, L. Buckhard, stopped him, and prevented a possible war incident.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Fire

On 24 February 1972, a fire broke out on board 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 was transferred in 1994 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 K-19 was purchased by Vladimir Romanov, who once served on the sub as a conscript, with the intention of "Turning it into a Moscow-based meeting place to build links between submarine veterans from Russia and other countries." So far, the plans remain on hold, and many of K-19's survivors have objected to them. ^[2]