"Mini-Submarine Found In Swedish Waters" Topic

Following on from last October's ghost-sub-hunt:

A Swedish underwater treasure-hunting company has actually found and filmed a sunken mini-sub (20m long by 3m wide) sitting on the bottom of a Swedish fjord. The Swedish Navy confirms that this is an accurate report, though are tight-lipped about whose it might be (this is in Swedish – not reported yet in English that I can find):

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The finders report it to be 'recently sunk', perfectly intact and in pristine condition, with no obvious damage and with all hatches shut (suggesting that the crew's bodies are still inside). They also describe 'Cyrillic writing'…

So do any resident submariners recognise anything in the film?

I would tend to err on the side of caution – the cold Baltic waters do have remarkable properties of preservation and there are a number of steel vessels sitting on the bottom from WW2 and earlier in similarly pristine condition.

Hmmm, I suspected as much.

Must be those crafty Americans trying to throw the Swedes off the scent, since no Russian subs were in their waters.

Perhaps it is a Soviet-built sub, instead.

Darn, I knew I lost a minisub somewhere…

Those poor Russian's they can't catch a break. I blame the Swede's and their sub standard maps.

They have had mini subs prowling around for many years. I remember about 15 years ago they filmed tread marks along the ocean bottom and thought it was a mini
sub with tracks.

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Here ya go.

and:

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"Those poor Russian's they can't catch a break. I blame the Swede's and their sub standard maps".

Well, if the Russkies didn't play in other peoples' waters, at least we'd be less aware how bad their submarine technology and maintenance are…..

BBC News story
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It seems that it is "Som" sub, sank in 1916 when being hit by Swedish ship "Ingermanland".
If it is really "Som", it is of US origin (1901), designed by J.P.Holland (or Golland, in Russian transcript).

Yeah, that was my thought – something WW2 or earlier that's been preserved by the cold and oxygen-poor water. The vessel in that bit of film doesn't look like anything modern (I thought X-Craft or WW1 U-Boat) and seems to include a flagpole…

Looks in incredibly good condition for a WW1 boat,

Stuff brought up from those waters frequently is in astonishingly good condition. The 'Wasa' wooden warship is the best-known example (the 'Mars' and 'Svardet' are also two incredibly well-preserved wooden warships), but steel hulls also survive incredibly well in the local conditions (very similar to wrecks in the US/Canadian Great Lakes).

The story is getting wide coverage here. The sub was first found in 2011, but this time the camera captured the nameplate with a special letter at the end of "Som" (Ъ) a distinctive mark of pre-revolution Russian alphabet. It's original name was "Fulton", as it was built as prototype for new series by J.Holland's works.
It served on Far East, Black Sea and Baltic Sea before this fatal accident.
As for condition of stuff in Baltic sea we have a case of RF L5, sunk in 1919, found in 1926 and put into Soviet service in 1929….

some interesting pics in this Russian langauge article:
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The original link has been updated and says that after inspection by the Swedish military they have confirmed it is most likely the Som, sunk in 1916

Wow, that is in amazing condition for such an old vessel.

Wiki has a profile of the Som sub class and has been updated to reflect the finding of the Som herself this year

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