The crew of the Northern Fleet’s hydrographic vessel "Romuald Muklevich" discovered several ships that sank during the Great Patriotic War at the bottom of the Barents Sea. Among them are the corvette “Bluebell”, the destroyer “Matabele”, the patrol ship “Passat”, and an unknown vessel, which may be the RT-67 “Molotov” fishing trawler, which sank in the same battle. In addition, the hydrographers of the Northern Fleet confirmed the coordinates of the location of the “Tuman” patrol ship, which fought three Nazi destroyers 80 years ago.
The finds were made during the final stage of the joint operation of the Northern Fleet and the Russian Geographical Society "Remember the War". Its main task is to search for ships and perpetuate the memory of the sailors who died in the defense of the Soviet Arctic. Also, the sailors of the Northern Fleet assessed the seabed relief along the route with a length of more than 1.5 thousand kilometers.
The hydrographic vessel "Romuald Muklevich" has previously participated in several stages of the complex expedition "Remember the War". In August and September, for 52 days, its crew was conducting research in the waters of the Barents and Kara Seas, off the coast of Severny Island of Novaya Zemlya and the continental coast, where the routes of northern convoys passed during the Great Patriotic War. Several underwater objects have been discovered by the hydrographers. Most of them are ships and vessels that sank in the early and mid-20th century.
The coordinates of the previously found by the search specialists vessel BO-224 and the submarine D-3 "Krasnogravdeets", the German submarines U-307 and U-387 were confirmed by the research team. In addition, the coordinates of the ships and vessels of the BD-5 convoy that sank in 1944 were confirmed in the Kara Sea.
The members of the expedition held a commemorative event and laid wreaths on the water at the site of the sinking of the D-3 submarine, the “Marina Raskova” transport, the minesweepers TSH-114 and TSH-118.