The wrecked Russian nuclear submarine Kursk was towed into dock yesterday at the Arctic port of Roslyankovo near Murmansk, 14 months after it sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea.
Six tugboats towed the salvage barge Giant-4 with the 18,000-tonne hulk attached beneath it across a small bay to the dry dock in northwestern Russia.
The Kursk, the most modern nuclear submarine in the Russian fleet, sank during a naval exercise on August 12th last year following two mysterious explosions, causing the death of all 118 men on board. It was raised from the sea bed on October 8th after a three-month operation which cost $65 million. Since arriving in Belokamennaya Bay just outside Roslyankovo the barge has had two huge pontoons attached to raise it some seven metres out of the water.
The operation to tow the barge 300 metres across the bay had been scheduled for Saturday but was postponed because of technical problems and strong winds. Winds again endangered the operation yesterday, but the tugboats brought the Giant-4 to its berth in under five hours. It is to be examined before being dismantled.
Completion of the operation to make the wreck fully open to inspection to determine the cause of the disaster is expected to take around five days. An early priority will be removing the seamen's bodies.