С-178 (S-178) was a Project 613B (NATO

NATO reporting name

NATO reporting names are classified code names for military equipment of the Eastern Bloc...

: ) diesel

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

 submarine of the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

.

Collision and loss

On 21 October 1981, S-178, under the command of Captain Third Rank V.A. Marango, was transiting on the surface at 9 knots (18 km/h), returning to base after two days of sound trials. The sea state

Sea state

In oceanography, a sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water—with respect to wind waves and swell—at a certain location and moment. A sea state is characterized by statistics, including the wave height, period, and power spectrum. The sea state varies with...

 was 2 (less than one-metre waves) and night time visibility was unlimited. The starboard diesel was under repair, so the propulsion plant was aligned port diesel, starboard electric motor. For convenience, the diesel mechanics and electricians had opened the watertight doors between compartments. In addition, the cooks had opened other watertight doors so that they could serve dinner.

At 19:30 local time, S-178 received permission to save time by entering Golden Horn Bay

Zolotoy Rog

Zolotoy Rog Bay is a sheltered horn-shaped bay separated from the Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan by Shkota Peninsula on the north-west, Cape Goldobina on the east-north-east, and Cape Tigrovy on the west. The bay is seven kilometers long, with a width of about two kilometers and a depth...

, in downtown Vladivostok

Vladivostok

The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...

, through a combat training range. The port officer who granted that permission had just assumed the watch, and was unaware that the off-going watch officer had granted similar permission to the refrigerated stores vessel RFS Refrizherator-13 to leave Golden Horn Bay through the combat training range.

Watchmen on RFS-13 noticed navigation lights which they took to be a fishing trawler. At about the same time, the pilot of RFS-13 noted a contact on radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 which was showing decreasing range and zero bearing rate, indicating a collision course. On S-178, sonar

Sonar

Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

 reported detection of another vessel, but that report was lost in the relaxed atmosphere prevailing on the submarine after dinner.

Nautical "rules of the road

International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea

The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 are published by the International Maritime Organization , and set out, inter alia, the "rules of the road" or navigation rules to be followed by ships and other vessels at sea in order to prevent collisions between two or more...

" and the rules of navigation in Vladivostok port agree that the ship should yield the right-of-way to the submarine; however, master V.F. Kurdyukov of RFS-13 chose not to alter course. The lookouts on S-178 did not spot RFS-13’s running lights against the background of the lights of Vladivostok until the ship was upon them. The captain gave the orders "hard right rudder" and "Signalman, illuminate that vessel", but too late to have any effect.

At 19:45 Refrizherator-13 struck S-178 at an angle of 20–30 degrees on the port side of the sixth compartment at a speed of 8 knots (16 km/h), tearing a hole about two square metres in area. The sixth compartment flooded completely in 15 to 20 seconds. The boat rolled sharply, throwing the 11 men on the bridge into the water. The inrushing water made it impossible to close the watertight doors between the sixth, fifth, and fourth compartments. Approximately 40 seconds after the collision, S-178 had taken on about 130 tons of water, and sank. She hit bottom, rolled 28 degrees to starboard, in 31 meters of water.

Eighteen men died immediately. The 26 survivors in the forward compartments were unable to stop the flooding of the third compartment, so retreated into the first and second compartments about half an hour after the wreck. Four men were trapped in the seventh compartment, including the Chief of Staff of the submarine brigade Captain Second Rank V.Y. Karavekov. When leakage into the seventh compartment reached 15 tons an hour, Karavekov made the decision to escape from that compartment and make a free ascent to the surface. However, they could not open the escape trunk's top hatch. It transpired later that they had not equalized the pressure across the hatch. Four hours later, communications with the seventh compartment ended.

On the surface, RFS-13 rescued seven of the 11 men thrown from the bridge and at 19:57 informed the port authorities of the accident. At 20:15 search and rescue forces were alerted, and steam ships Zhigulis and Mashuk, and the Project 940 Lenok

India class submarine

The Project 940 Lenok class was a military submarine design of the Soviet Union....

 rescue submarine BS-480 Komsomolets Uzbekistan had arrived at the scene of the accident.

At 21:00 the crew of RFS-13 located the emergency buoy from S-178. At 21:50 salvage ships arrived at the scene. Vice-Admiral Golosov commanded salvage operations.

Beginning at 08:45 on 22 October, Komsomolets Uzbekistan began attempting to rescue the trapped crew, but locating the sunken submarine took about 17 hours. The rescue submarine dived three times, without success. Divers finally reached S-178 on 23 October at 03:03. By this time, the trapped crew had despaired of rescue and had begun attempting free ascents. At 20:30 on 23 October, Captain Lieutenant

Captain Lieutenant

Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of different navies worldwide.It is generally equivalent to the Commonwealth or US rank of lieutenant, and has the NATO rank code of OF-2, though this can vary....

Kubynin, the senior officer among the survivors, was the last of the crew to leave S-178. Three men who reached the surface later died, and three others who left the boat were never found on the surface; it is possible they came up under maneuvering ships and were killed by their screws. Their loss brought the death toll to 31 men.

On 24 October work began to raise the sunken boat. First, pontoons lifted her up to a depth of 15 meters and she was towed into shallow water. Divers then removed the bodies of the victims. On 15 November 1981 S-178 was raised. After her torpedoes were removed, she was dry docked. Repair was deemed impractical, and she was stricken. Her commander, Captain Third Rank Marango, and Kurdyukov, the master of RFS-13, were both sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.