# Black Widow Submarine, April 2010



## Kent-urbex (Apr 27, 2010)

*History*

The "Black Widow" ex Russian Foxtrot B-39 (U 475) Hunter Killer Class Submarine is currently moored in the River Medway off Strood near Rochester. It was built in 1967 and prowled the Oceans untill 1994. The submarine was used to train mainly Libyan, Cuban, and Indian submariners and spent it’s time playing cat and mouse with NATO. When it was fully armed it could hold 22 Torpedo's including 2 with low yield nuclear warheads.(6 + 12 forward, 4 astern)
Technical specifications
Displacement: 1,950 Tonnes (1,650 without batteries)
Length: 92 Metres
Width 7.5 Metres
Draft: 5.1 Metres (4.5 without batteries)
Service interval: 90 Days
Crew: 77 Members
Max. diving depth: 280 Metres
Working Depth: 250 Metres
Max. surface speed: 16.8 Knots
Surface cruising range: 30,000 Miles
Submerged cruising range: 400 Miles
Powerplant
Diesel Motors: 3 pcs at 2000hp
Electric Motors: 1 pc at 2700hp
2pcs at 1350hp
1pc at 140hp
Batteries: 448 pcs at 650kg

After it's 27 years active service ended the Submarine arrived in London form the Naval Base in Riga,under command of its Captain Vitalij Burda who had commanded the ship for 23 years. It stayed at Long's Wharf at the Thames Barrier and was opened as a Museum untill 1998. Then it was moved to Folkstone and again opened untill 2004.After that it was moved to the River Medway and is waiting to be re-homed,the Submarine is now listing to one side and has a hole in. when entering there is lots of bird shit. Shame the submarine has got in such a state. Got bad rust on the outside. 

*Visited with Begood*

After being able to use a boat for the night I thought tonight was the night to visit the submarine. Tried fitting a roof rack to my car but it was the wrong type of clamps. So tried fitting the boat into the car and I had half in and half out. We thought we would get stopped by police but lucky I didn’t the 5 miles I drove. The submarine is over looked from a local pub. Once on board it was an amazing place. *I AGREE WITH JACKAL *Stupidly dangerous access, so would strongly advise against visiting. Going to take a few pictures of the outside once day light, thanks for looking 

here a short clip on the inside [nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXpkqponapI[/nomedia] 

Boat (sorry bad shot)






1#





2#





3#





4#





5#





6#




7#




8#




9#




10#




11#


----------



## lost (Apr 27, 2010)

Great photos, I'd love to see this in person. The scary access probably just adds to it.


----------



## Foxylady (Apr 27, 2010)

Fabulous explore. Just gotta love a sub...so many interesting gizmos inside. Interesting info about the galley.
Cheers Kent-urbex.  Lol at the boat transportation.


----------



## Nocturno (Apr 27, 2010)

Great stuff mate, especially the torpedo tubes shot. Sorry to hear the sub's in such a bad way though.


----------



## hydealfred (Apr 27, 2010)

Love the shots of all those valves - tubes - equipment etc. Well done


----------



## pricejs (Apr 27, 2010)

Picture eight is great. A lot of Russian Naval stuff was sent to the UK for breaking. I managed to secure, legally of course, a great wall clock which takes pride of place on the kitchen wall. Well done with the scary entry.


----------



## professor frink (Apr 27, 2010)

I like this alot, nice one.

Was the boat rowed, or did you use an outboard?


----------



## tom46 (Apr 27, 2010)

Serious kudos mate  Gutted I couldn't make it. Top job.


----------



## chris (Apr 28, 2010)

Really impressive, especially the boat/car mating shot  Well done


----------



## UrbanX (Apr 28, 2010)

Great effort dude! Most of us have ticked off the local RAF bases, and asylums, but few have ticked off 'Submarine'!! 
Great pics too, I imagine it was pitch black?


----------



## BeGood (Apr 28, 2010)

It was a quality explore.

UrbanX - yes, it was pitch black inside.

Here are a few pictures that I took:






The Submarine, with Rochester in the background.

























Cheers!


----------



## Kent-urbex (Apr 28, 2010)

love the 2nd shot mate, when did you go back in day light?


----------



## BeGood (Apr 28, 2010)

Cheers, mate. 

The missus gave me a lift up there yesterday, shame it had clouded over by that point though.


----------



## steve_o (Apr 30, 2010)

Good effort. Amazing how trustworty these things were. Russian build, trawling the UNDER the oceans for 27 years!


----------



## Matty208 (May 2, 2010)

As a 106 owner, i salute your awesome effort, in both the strapping of the boat to the car and the getting into a sub!  Brilliant


----------



## graybags (May 4, 2010)

*Dive,Dive,Dive*

BBC 4 11pm tonight !!

G


----------



## DigitalNoise (May 5, 2010)

Nicely done, you cheeky buggers. They've moved the sub since I lat saw it, it used to be moored onto a pontoon right by Strood station.


----------



## Kent-urbex (May 9, 2010)

graybags said:


> BBC 4 11pm tonight !!
> 
> G



missed it mate, what was it about?


----------



## graybags (May 9, 2010)

*Submarine night*

Apparently the Black Widow was in it.....



G


----------



## krela (May 9, 2010)

It was on BBC4, it'll be repeated at least another 50 times. In fact its being repeated tonight.


----------



## drkelso88 (May 13, 2010)

wow - these photos are pretty amazing. I've always wondered about this sub every time I go past on the train - so thanks! and how you got there with the boat in the car.... just amazing!


----------



## the_delta_force (May 14, 2010)

I visited this sub when it was moored by the Thames Barrier in 1996/1997. Great find!


----------



## FoxtrotU475 (May 27, 2010)

*welcome aboard*

Hello folks, I am the manager of the submarine and read with interest your reports , its great to see that people are enthusiastic and still find it of interest, would not reccomend to anyone the access route taken as the hand grabs up the side of the leaning conning tower are not in the best condition and are likely to fail.

We had guessed that someone had been inside as we found 4 of our finest Ninja pidgeons dead in the control room, we have applied for them to be awarded the Dicken Medal of honour for outstanding bravery

The conning tower is filthy as it has been completely taken over by the pidgeons as the netting we had has been damaged over the past couple of years so we need to replace it as they are real vermin

Our concern is not that someone has been inside for a look but more to do with the safety aspect of 3 men in a dodgy boat rowing over in the middle of the night to clamber over the conning tower etc. 

As a suggestion if there is any interest I would be happy to meet with a group of you at the sub one weekend or perhaps evening in the Summer to open it up so you can have a good look around. good news is that we have a boat to get back and forth that looks a bit safer than the one rammed into the back of the car .

We could pump out some of the ballast tanks to make the visit more comfortable , if anyone out there has any suggestions for how to fix the holes in the tanks please let us know ,likewise if anyone can suggest any possible moorings that would be good too.

Cheers


----------



## Kent-urbex (May 27, 2010)

FoxtrotU475 said:


> Hello folks, I am the manager of the submarine and read with interest your reports , its great to see that people are enthusiastic and still find it of interest, would not reccomend to anyone the access route taken as the hand grabs up the side of the leaning conning tower are not in the best condition and are likely to fail.
> 
> We had guessed that someone had been inside as we found 4 of our finest Ninja pidgeons dead in the control room, we have applied for them to be awarded the Dicken Medal of honour for outstanding bravery
> 
> ...



thanks for getting in contact FoxtrotU475 i love to re-visit if thats ok, i'm sure there are many people on here who would like to visit and help out with the submarine in return. please may you get in contact with me on [email protected] many thanks Rob


----------



## daddybear (Jun 1, 2010)

what a great opportunity you had there lads i would love to get in something like that! i shall look fwd to your return visit posts


----------



## tom46 (Jun 1, 2010)

FoxtrotU475 said:


> Hello folks, I am the manager of the submarine and read with interest your reports , its great to see that people are enthusiastic and still find it of interest, would not reccomend to anyone the access route taken as the hand grabs up the side of the leaning conning tower are not in the best condition and are likely to fail.
> 
> We had guessed that someone had been inside as we found 4 of our finest Ninja pidgeons dead in the control room, we have applied for them to be awarded the Dicken Medal of honour for outstanding bravery
> 
> ...



Mate, you have no idea how awesome it is to see someone as genuine as you is in possession of a gem like this. I'd be more than willing to help you out on this one. 

Tom


----------



## chris (Jun 6, 2010)

Fantastic - if there is a visit I'd really like to take a look


----------



## FoxtrotU475 (Jun 12, 2010)

*Submarine visit*

Hello Folks, just an update on the sub we had a dutch film company visit yesterday and they are looking to use it for a short film about two deaf lovers that run away from home to hide in a derelict submarine ( boyfriend then apparently goes mad and locks her in !) so that they cannot be found, they thought it would be ideal , I had to promise that we would not paint it , clean up the pidgeon mess and cobwebs inside and leave it leaning over !. 

Hopefully it happens as we could use the money towards a paint job , i also bought 250 metres of bird netting yesterday which is enough to cover the sub twice over ! , in particular I am keen to properlly net over the conning tower to keep them out so we can get it cleaned up as it is in need of a major clean up( real mask and overall job) , would be good to get it done as there is a fair bit to see up there. I have found that pidgeons are very crafty Fuc*kers and I swear they carry swiss army knives .

Let me know if anyone has a preferred date in mind for a visit.

Cheers

[email protected]


----------



## chris (Jun 12, 2010)

Great news about the film - do they need any extras? 

Would any time on the weekend of 26th/27th June be possible?


----------



## Mr Sam (Jun 13, 2010)

if it werent so far away id love to have a look 



good luck with the sub's future


----------

