A Brief History
On January 11, 1962, the Soviet Navy suffered an embarrassing loss of a submarine when their Foxtrot Class sub, B-37, caught fire while tied up at dock at Polarny naval base, resulting in the total loss of the sub.
Digging Deeper
B-37 had been undergoing routine maintenance when the fire broke out, possibly due to hydrogen gas set off by an electrical spark. With all the watertight doors open, the fire spread and reached the torpedoes, setting off the explosives contained within those weapons and destroying the submarine.
Sadly, 59 of the 61 crewmen aboard B-37 were killed instantly, along with 19 crewmen from an adjacent submarine and another 44 personnel nearby. B-37 was labeled by NATO as a Foxtrot Class sub, referred to in the Soviet Navy as a Project 641 boat. A diesel/electric sub, B-37 displaced almost 2,000 tons surfaced and about 2,500 tons submerged, stretching about 295 feet long and just over 24 feet wide.
Fires aboard ships are not an uncommon occurrence and have resulted in many notable incidents by virtually every navy in the world, just one of the many ways going to sea in ships can be deadly business even when not facing an enemy, something we have called a naval “oops moment” in our many articles on the subject.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What was the worst non-combat naval disaster?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gray, Edwyn. Disasters of the Deep: A Comprehensive Survey of Submarine Accidents & Disasters. Pen & Sword Military, 2006.
Polmar, Norman and K. J. Moore. Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001. POTOMAC BOOKS , 2005.
The featured image in this article, a 1986 map by the United States Department of Defense showing the Soviet Military Forces, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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