Ukrainian Ministry of Culture allowed the soviet submarine lift from the Black Sea bottom / Photos

The Crimean Republican Committee on cultural heritage protection has received the permission of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture to lift the World War II soviet submarine “Shch-216”, found at the Black Sea bottom.

Experts of the Black Sea Underwater Research Center get ready to put out at the beginning of August to examine the submarine.

“At the first stage we will clean the submarine hull from fishing trawls. Sapper experts should reach the damaged compartment to assess the state of torpedoes. In addition to that, we will carry out the environmental monitoring. These measures will define the readiness for submarine’s lift to the surface”, – Center’s Manager Sergey Voronov has explained.

There are plans to arrange a museum out of unique exhibits, which might be preserved at the submarine.

Thanks to archive documents experts have managed to define all names of the crew members and to identify completely the reasons for the vessel’s loss. Relatives of three crew members have been found by now.

On July 4, 2013, while carrying out the program for submersion of the remotely controlled submersible craft “Sophocles-1” abeam the Tarkhankut Cape near the rock ridge at the depth of 52 meters, the experts of the Crimean Republican Organization “Black Sea Underwater Research Center” discovered a soviet submarine of the World War II period.

Shch-216 Roadstead near Batumi. 1943. Photo by oldmikk.ru

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