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Wednesday, January 09, 2013

37. KURSURA SUB-MARINE MUSEUM, VISHAKHAPATNAM (AP), INDIA


Isn't Kursura a majestic beauty?
From a distance, I saw an elegant sub-marine standing tall at Rama Krishna Beach in Vizag (Vishakhapatnam) and was instantly attracted to her. Reaching there, I realised that it was actually Kursura Submarine Museum where majestic INS Kursura was parked for the public to touch her, visit her and feel her. Wow! Soon, I was there to get a feel of how life inside a submarine would be, of course after buying a ticket for self and the camera.


At the entrance itself, a lot of information about INS Kursura was displayed and I took my time to read it to have some understanding of her ways and systems before getting introduced to her. The information was useful and prepared me to meet her.


I learnt that a submarine has two steel hulls, the pressure hull and the outer hull. All the people, equipment, weapon and stores are kept in the pressure hull which is water-tight and can withstand pressure undersea. Obviously, the space available to the crew is very limited.

Once dived, there is no air to run the engine. So the submarine is powered by 448 batteries each weighing a solid 652 kg. When the batteries are discharged, the submarine comes up just below the water and sticks out her snort-mast to get the air just like a scuba driver. She draws fresh air from the atmosphere, runs her diesel engines and recharges the batteries. The process is called “snorting.” Hmmm.... sounds interesting!

A submarine can remain submerged up to 48 hours continuously up to 60 days at a stretch and she has no windows. When under water, her sonars are her eyes and ears which guide her in navigating as well as in detecting an enemy ship and torpedoing it. INS Kursura carried 22 torpedoes each having the hundreds of kilograms of explosives. 

A torpedo in the sub-marine
A submarine can also lay mines outside enemy harbours to destroy their warships. She can also watch the enemy activities through a periscope and can also carry and drop marine commandos in enemy territory to attack their installations. Very impressive!


INS Kursura is one of the Soviet Foxtrot class submarine. She was commissioned on the 18th December, 1969 in USSR and decommissioned on the 27th February 2001 in India. She served our nation for 31 years and also played a significant role in 1971 during Indo-Pak war. After decommissioning, she was converted into a Museum at RK Beach. With all her weaponry and mechanisms intact, the “Grand Old Lady of Indian Navy,” as she is fondly called, walked to the RK Beach, to be opened to public on the 24th August 2002. She is maintained by VUDA (Vishakhapatnam Urban Development Authority) and has emerged as a very important tourist destination of Andhra Pradesh as this museum is first of its kind in our country.

In the Communication Room
The vital statistics of INS Kursura are quite impressive. She has seven compartments and weighs 1945 tonnes on the surface.  She is 11.92 metres tall, 91.3 metres long and 8 metres wide. She carries 10 ballast tanks and 3 diesel engines each of 2000 HP capacity. She has 3 propellers and 3 main motors with fuel capacity of 439 tonnes at her service. Its anchor weighs 1000 kg and the anchor chain is 176 metres long. And the depth of its Periscope is 9m. It can move at a speed of 15.5 knots on the surface. And 1 knot (1 nautical mile) being equal to 1.852 km, the speed should be an app. 28.706 km in layman's terms, I calculated. Similarly, underwater speed is only 9 knots which is equal to 16.668 km only.

This area has been cleared for visitors after removing
ammunition, torpedos and missiles
Although an entry into a submarine is from the top through a long cylindrical passage, they had improvised proper stairs for the visitors to climb up. The visitors were segregated on the basis of language they understood and entry was regulated ensuring that the visitors do not overcrowd the place. There were two guides inside who were explaining everything.


A Mariner resting in his narrow bunk bed
The fresh water capacity being only 36.6 tonnes, availability of drinking water required for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth and washing one’s face is naturally limited. So no bath for 60 days so long as one is in the submarine! There are only two toilets for about 75 crew members on INS Kursura. Must be tough for the poor mariners! There are 54 high-pressure air bottles each having 200kg CM2 air. Is there a limit on breathing too, I wondered. 

 Dining Table convertible into an Operation Table
A small kitchen called the “Galley” caters to everybody’s requirements. The cook must be very efficient, I must say. The space for sleeping also was very congested with up to 4 narrow bunk beds in each compartment.  The small Dining Room could be converted into an Operation Theatre with Dining Table doubling up as an Operation Table, we were told. Kya baat hai!!!  

The life inside must be tough, I had already realised. Hats off to our mariners in the Indian Navy that our waters are safe and we can breathe easy sitting in our houses without any fear of foreign attacks.


Now that you have read so much about INS Kursura, you may like to listen to this old favourite JAMAICA FAREWELL ...and feel the pain of a sailor.

*****

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for introducing INS Kursura to us. The reading makes me think about how difficult life must be for people who have to work in submarines. Living on land one cannot even imagine the confined space in which one has to live for days together.
    Indeed hats off to all those who guard our borders and make it convenient for us to live comfortably. We need to be grateful to them.

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  2. Chanchal Sanghi,"Wonderfully written!Jamaica Farewell was the bonus!!"

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  3. Ravi Nair, " nicely written.."

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  4. "Kudos" to the blog

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