Submarine U-475 Black Widow was a Soviet Navy submarine of the Cold war period, which is now in private hands. She is currently moored at Strood, on the River Medway, in South-East England.
The Soviet Project 641 class submarines (known to the West by their NATO reporting name of Foxtrot) was a class of conventionally powered patrol/attack submarines. Some 74 were built by the Soviet Navy between 1957 and 1983 as well as 17 others for the Libyan, Cuban and Indian Navies.
Black Widow was built at Sudomekh shipyard in Leningrad and commissioned in 1967. She was based at Riga and served with the Soviet Baltic Fleet
before being used as a training vessel for crews from overseas who
would be operating Foxtrot-class subs in their own navies. She was
decommissioned in 1994 and sold.
After passing into private hands, and under the name "U-475 Black Widow" she was moored at Long's Wharf near the Thames Barrier in England where she was open to the public as a museum ship. In 1998 she was moved to Folkestone,
where she was again opened to the public. In 2004 she was moved to her
present location, in a state of disrepair, and is currently awaiting
restoration
No comments:
Post a Comment