АлександрД
Contributor
GHOST SHIP
Nikolay Savinov says
(google translation)
On one of the fine days of 1948, the transport ship Anatoly Serov, loaded with ore, left Novorossiysk for Odessa. A routine flight of only a few hundred miles was tragic. The vessel did not arrive at the port of destination. On the way, it mysteriously disappeared from the water surface of the Black Sea, without having had time to give a distress signal.
When all the waiting periods for transport in the port had passed, they began to search for the vessel along the probable route of its passage.
After a long search in the sea, not far from Cape Tarkhankut, at a depth of 130 meters, a sunken ship was found. In accordance with the calculations of the route of passage, the analysis of radiograms, the results of observation of the posts of the R/V and the ships and vessels passing along the same route, it was concluded that, most likely, this is the disappeared bulk carrier. To make sure that it was Anatoly Serov at the bottom, and to find out the cause of his death, it was necessary for divers to descend to this depth and carefully examine the remains of the ship. The country's leadership was obliged to know: "Why did the ship die in peacetime and is this action not seen as sabotage on the part of a potential enemy"?
The government of the country set the task of the command of the Soviet Navy to answer this question. In those years, the implementation of this government task was hampered by the fact that the diving equipment in service with the emergency rescue service made it possible to safely dive to a depth of no more than 60 meters. Some divers of the EPRON Black Sea Expedition back in 1936-1938, after lengthy training, reached a depth of 130 meters, lingering there for several minutes. But now it was necessary not only to reach this depth, but also to carry out complex survey work with the movement of divers along the ground and the hull of the sunken ship. Long stay at this depth and work in the usual three-bolt equipment, when divers breathe ordinary air from the surface, threatened them with mortal danger for many reasons, the main ones being the narcotic effect of nitrogen and hypothermia during underwater decompression.
In 1946, a commission for the emergency rescue business of the Navy was created and worked in the Navy, it was headed by Academician L.A. Orbeli. She reported directly to the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and dealt with the problems of deep diving. The commission included the head of the test party, Doctor-Professor of Medical Sciences E.M. Kreps, known since the birth of EPRON, engineer-captain 1st rank A.3. Kaplanovsky, barolaboratory mechanic A.A. Nasilyuk, two testers, the world's first deep-sea divers, midshipmen B.A. Ivanov and I.I. Vyskrebentsev.
The floating base "Altai" was the base of the ongoing research. Already in 1947, in the sea, not far from Sukhumi, they reached a depth of 200 meters when divers breathed helio-oxygen and air-helium mixtures and created a prototype of helio-oxygen equipment (ГКС - Гелиево-Кислородное Снаряжение - GKS). The author of the invention of the new equipment was Captain 1st Rank Burenkov. At the heart of the GKS was a modification of the three-bolt ventilated equipment. A gas distribution system with gearboxes was added to the old-style shirt and helmet. The gas distributor box was attached to the diver's chest.
The work was carried out in secret and only a few commanding officers of the Navy knew about their results. In 1948, the Navy Command turned to the Orbeli Commission to help the rescue service of the Black Sea Fleet in examining the sunken ship.
Tests of the GKS, with the aim of using it to survey the sunken Serov, were transferred to the Lena mine layer. From this high-sided vessel the divers of the rescue service of the Black Sea Fleet were already preparing for work in new equipment, studying its structure, work features, descending to various depths and conducting physiological training of the body. I also took part in the tests of the first serial samples of the GKS - the Black Sea diver, foreman of the 2nd article Nikolai Vasilyevich Savinov.
Having thus prepared a group of divers, already in 1948, in the equipment of the GKS, the first attempt was made to examine the Serov. However, the lack of experience in the equipment of the test site for guiding divers and performing work on the sunken object, the imperfection of the GKS equipment and the diving complex for descent, ensuring the work and decompression of divers, and the beginning autumn-winter storms did not allow this to be done.
In the spring of 1949, the diving expedition again came to the Serov, already more prepared and determined. A landfill was broken over the point of occurrence of the transport: for which four reinforced concrete massifs weighing 30 tons each were used as dead anchors. Instead of barrels, four forty-ton pontoons were hooked to the arrays. Between them, on steel cables, a diving vessel with the best Black Sea divers, well trained for the winter, was unfastened.
130 meters is a serious depth. Even for today's divers and aquanauts, armed with heated suits, lightweight and reliable gas delivery units and miniature prompt computers. And then, in the late 40s, everything was for the first time. But people, going under water, sacredly believed in the idea, in favor of their deep-water event for the people, and therefore they risked their lives consciously. Using the words often used at that time: "The party said, and Comrade Stalin ordered - to take 130 meters, join the Serov, inspect the ship and report the results of intelligence" upstairs ".
But in order to climb to a depth of more than 100 meters, in addition to the GKS deep-sea equipment, it was necessary to have one more obligatory technical innovation - a diving bell. Indeed, when ascending from "helium" depths, according to calculations, decompression reached many hours - passing it into the sea, in the old fashioned way, a diver could freeze.
In 1949, naturally, there was no diving bell in the Black Sea Fleet. The war has recently ended, and the ruin in the national economy and industry has not yet been eliminated.
Nikolay Savinov says
(google translation)
On one of the fine days of 1948, the transport ship Anatoly Serov, loaded with ore, left Novorossiysk for Odessa. A routine flight of only a few hundred miles was tragic. The vessel did not arrive at the port of destination. On the way, it mysteriously disappeared from the water surface of the Black Sea, without having had time to give a distress signal.
When all the waiting periods for transport in the port had passed, they began to search for the vessel along the probable route of its passage.
After a long search in the sea, not far from Cape Tarkhankut, at a depth of 130 meters, a sunken ship was found. In accordance with the calculations of the route of passage, the analysis of radiograms, the results of observation of the posts of the R/V and the ships and vessels passing along the same route, it was concluded that, most likely, this is the disappeared bulk carrier. To make sure that it was Anatoly Serov at the bottom, and to find out the cause of his death, it was necessary for divers to descend to this depth and carefully examine the remains of the ship. The country's leadership was obliged to know: "Why did the ship die in peacetime and is this action not seen as sabotage on the part of a potential enemy"?
The government of the country set the task of the command of the Soviet Navy to answer this question. In those years, the implementation of this government task was hampered by the fact that the diving equipment in service with the emergency rescue service made it possible to safely dive to a depth of no more than 60 meters. Some divers of the EPRON Black Sea Expedition back in 1936-1938, after lengthy training, reached a depth of 130 meters, lingering there for several minutes. But now it was necessary not only to reach this depth, but also to carry out complex survey work with the movement of divers along the ground and the hull of the sunken ship. Long stay at this depth and work in the usual three-bolt equipment, when divers breathe ordinary air from the surface, threatened them with mortal danger for many reasons, the main ones being the narcotic effect of nitrogen and hypothermia during underwater decompression.
In 1946, a commission for the emergency rescue business of the Navy was created and worked in the Navy, it was headed by Academician L.A. Orbeli. She reported directly to the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and dealt with the problems of deep diving. The commission included the head of the test party, Doctor-Professor of Medical Sciences E.M. Kreps, known since the birth of EPRON, engineer-captain 1st rank A.3. Kaplanovsky, barolaboratory mechanic A.A. Nasilyuk, two testers, the world's first deep-sea divers, midshipmen B.A. Ivanov and I.I. Vyskrebentsev.
The floating base "Altai" was the base of the ongoing research. Already in 1947, in the sea, not far from Sukhumi, they reached a depth of 200 meters when divers breathed helio-oxygen and air-helium mixtures and created a prototype of helio-oxygen equipment (ГКС - Гелиево-Кислородное Снаряжение - GKS). The author of the invention of the new equipment was Captain 1st Rank Burenkov. At the heart of the GKS was a modification of the three-bolt ventilated equipment. A gas distribution system with gearboxes was added to the old-style shirt and helmet. The gas distributor box was attached to the diver's chest.
The work was carried out in secret and only a few commanding officers of the Navy knew about their results. In 1948, the Navy Command turned to the Orbeli Commission to help the rescue service of the Black Sea Fleet in examining the sunken ship.
Tests of the GKS, with the aim of using it to survey the sunken Serov, were transferred to the Lena mine layer. From this high-sided vessel the divers of the rescue service of the Black Sea Fleet were already preparing for work in new equipment, studying its structure, work features, descending to various depths and conducting physiological training of the body. I also took part in the tests of the first serial samples of the GKS - the Black Sea diver, foreman of the 2nd article Nikolai Vasilyevich Savinov.
Having thus prepared a group of divers, already in 1948, in the equipment of the GKS, the first attempt was made to examine the Serov. However, the lack of experience in the equipment of the test site for guiding divers and performing work on the sunken object, the imperfection of the GKS equipment and the diving complex for descent, ensuring the work and decompression of divers, and the beginning autumn-winter storms did not allow this to be done.
In the spring of 1949, the diving expedition again came to the Serov, already more prepared and determined. A landfill was broken over the point of occurrence of the transport: for which four reinforced concrete massifs weighing 30 tons each were used as dead anchors. Instead of barrels, four forty-ton pontoons were hooked to the arrays. Between them, on steel cables, a diving vessel with the best Black Sea divers, well trained for the winter, was unfastened.
130 meters is a serious depth. Even for today's divers and aquanauts, armed with heated suits, lightweight and reliable gas delivery units and miniature prompt computers. And then, in the late 40s, everything was for the first time. But people, going under water, sacredly believed in the idea, in favor of their deep-water event for the people, and therefore they risked their lives consciously. Using the words often used at that time: "The party said, and Comrade Stalin ordered - to take 130 meters, join the Serov, inspect the ship and report the results of intelligence" upstairs ".
But in order to climb to a depth of more than 100 meters, in addition to the GKS deep-sea equipment, it was necessary to have one more obligatory technical innovation - a diving bell. Indeed, when ascending from "helium" depths, according to calculations, decompression reached many hours - passing it into the sea, in the old fashioned way, a diver could freeze.
In 1949, naturally, there was no diving bell in the Black Sea Fleet. The war has recently ended, and the ruin in the national economy and industry has not yet been eliminated.
Continued in the next post
