Wreck of Soviet submarine S-2 found

[Tretov]

I thought this could be interesting also to our community. A Soviet submarine was sunk in 1940 in the sea between the Aland Isles (Finland) and Sweden and has now been found after almost 60 years.

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Rysk ubåt funnen vid Märket - Ålandstidningen

Translation

Russian submarine found at Märket

After almost ten years of searching, wreck hunters have found the remains of the russian submarine S-2 that was sund with all crew of 50 by the Market lighthouse in 1940.

HISTORY The last visual observation of the S-2 was made on January 3rd 1940 by lighthouse officer J.A. Eckerman of the Market lighthouse. He tells:

"The submarine was visible just outside the Market island eastern edge. It looked as if it headed northward towards the reefs just east of Market but suddenly it changed its heading to clear the reefs and headed eastwards between the reefs and the small island Northeast Sankan. Immidiately after changing course, the submarine submerged. Shortly after, an explosion was heard in east-southeast direction. At the moment I was looking through my binoculars at a shipwreck in another direction. As I immediately after the explosion turned around, I saw in the believed direction of the sound som thick black smoke that lightened up and disappeared in the wind. However, the observed submarine should not have been able to reach the explosion site even though it was heading in the direction. The submarine carried the the sign C-2."

Ever since, the submarine has been lost. Neither the Finnish or Swedish navy has known the position of the wreck.

The search for S-2 begun in April 2009. A wast area of the sea has been searched through and the wreck has now been found in the Aland sea near the Finnish-Swedish sea border by a swedish-finnish diving team. Member of this team is Ingvald Eckerman, grandson of the lighthouse officer J.A. Eckerman.

At the time of the sinking there were a total of 50 aboard, the regular crew of 46 plus the commander of the 13th submarine division Gavriil Nikolajevitj Tutyshkin, his assistant and two mechanical students. All 50 aboard perished.

Swedish and Aland isles authorities as well as the Embassy of Russia in Helsinki has been informed of the discovery of the wreck.

In a press release, the diving team tells that Russia has stated the finding of the S-2 to be very important and has thus contacted Swedish and Finnish authorities asking for further information on the fate of the S-2.

The members of the diving team are Mårten Zetterström (Heby), Ingvald Eckerman (Åland), Richard Johansson (Falkenberg), Patrik Palm (Helsingborg), Björn Rosenlöf (Stockholm) och Mikael Sundin (Uppsala).

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