Oh, I remember too many instances of Soviet submarine horrors, ranging from sub sails held on with a giant rubber band to green glowing subs towed back into harbor. This brings back memories, it does.
"After hours of trying to put out the flames, officials decided to partly submerge the hull of the 18,200-ton submarine at the Roslyakovo dock, one of the main dockyards of Russia’s northern fleet, 900 miles north of Moscow. " The rest of the story is here.
The soviets had a long history of disasters in the submarine force, more than 500 men had died from the inception of nuclear subs to the time I left the US Navy in 1991. Too many more since then. Life at sea is hard and dangerous, but when your main force is conscripted and ill-trained, it becomes criminally hazardous. Fires, reactor incidents, collisions, the causes are many. The result is the same. People suffer and die. Luckily, no one died aboard the Yekaterinburg (a sub that is older than my 25 year old daughter) but they might have.
I still think of the Russians as our adversaries, I suppose I always will. They are still sailors, and I would not wish a horror like that on any sailor. Glad so few were injured.
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