Soviet Submarine S-2 lost in 1940 discovered

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guys, I read this article and thought it was worth sharing here.

Cheers, Ade.



Russian submarine found at Märket

After almost 10 years of searching, wreck hunters have found the remains of the Russian submarine S-2 that was sunk with all crew of 50 men 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. Immediately after changing course, the submarine submerged. Shortly after, an explosion was heard in east-southeastly 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 some 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 S-2."

Ever since the submarine was 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 vast 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 joint Swedish-Finnish diving team. One member of this team is Ingvald Eckerman, who is the Grandson of the lighthouse officer J.A. Eckerman.

At the time of the sinking there were a total of 50 on board, the regular crew of 46 plus the Commander of the 13th Submarine Division, Gavriil Nikolajevitj Tutyshkin, his assistant and two mechanical students. All 50 on board perished.

Swedish and Aland Isles authorities as well as the Embassy of Russia in Helsinki, have 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) and Mikael Sundin (Uppsala).

[Brian Childress]

Awesome. So many more wrecks out there to find.

[Jan]

Great )

[Dimas]

Thank you for posting it here Ade!

[Paul E]

Very interesting Ade and great underwater photographs !

[Dimas]

Interesting, is there was anything found?

[grndskeeper]

Hmm..broken in two with the aft-section upside down. As this was 1940, are we to assume a casualty of the Soviet-Finnish war, hitting a mine maybe?

The Finns didn't have much of a navy then, so it wasn't lost to surface action. The Swedes were allied to the Finns, but they never claimed to have sunk it either...

AS there are divers present, the depth must be within 100 feet or so...any idea of it's final depth?

[Dimas]

Probably some crew's mistake. Or as I heard each of the submarines has in that time the deep bomb ( I don't know exact name in englich) on board to explode the boat if needed, and after some of the incidents, after 1941 year they was no more used onboard of submarine, as we can see the hole in the commander's part of boat

[Dimas]

Oficially Soviet HQ counts the S 2 boat KIA on the mine, Here is the map

[Dimas]

And a Russian source Êàðåëüñêèé ïåðåøååê. (Welcome)