Sunken Soviet Sub Up For Sale

The Associated Press

Published: December 29, 2008 (Issue # 1438)

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film and sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it, the president of the foundation that owns it said Wednesday.

The 282-foot submarine, also known as Juliett 484, began serving as a floating educational museum in 2002, until it went down during a powerful nor’easter in April 2007.

Army and Navy dive crews raised the sub in a training exercise last July, and inspections showed the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater.

Restoring it to an operational museum would have cost more than $1 million, said Frank Lennon, director of the Russian Sub Museum and president of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

“Based on the input we received from experts, the cost of restoring it was beyond our capabilities,” Lennon said.

A local company has agreed to move the sub downriver and eventually dismantle it for scrap metal if no one offers to buy it intact by the end of January.

“We remain hopeful that someone will step forward who might be interested in taking over the stewardship of this very interesting Cold War relic,” Lennon said.

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