Mystery Ship thread - why not?

[AntEater]

Ages ago, there was a "mystery ship" contest in Hazegray.org, which I even won 2 times
:D
Why not take a break from Jihad and Georgia and Obama and do something more maritime:
To keep in tune with the russian theme, here's one of the weirdest auxiliaries afloat, living history so to speak
Name (easy if you can read cyrillic), type of ship, year build please
http://s51.radikal.ru/i134/0807/28/0eba573fc9a9.jpg

[geetrue]

I don't know yours ... do you know mine?

http://media.shipspotting.com/uploads/thumbs/rw/707807_800/Ship+Photo+RFA+DILIGENCE++A132.jpg

[lesrae]

I don't know yours ... do you know mine?

Looks like RFA DILIGENCE to me - don't know about Anteater's.

[geetrue]

I don't know yours ... do you know mine?

Looks like RFA DILIGENCE to me - don't know about Anteater's.

Yep :yep: I knew it was too easy, but it was all I could find in a hurry.

[geetrue]

Here's a mystery sub for you.

http://media.shipspotting.com/uploads/thumbs/rw/695433_800/Ship+Photo+NCSM+ONONDAGA.jpg

[OneToughHerring]

AntEater's boat is this one.

http://warfare.ru/?catid=302&linkid=2159

[lesrae]

Here's a mystery sub for you.

Oberon class, which one though...

[geetrue]

Yes, the submarine in question is the NCSM ONONDAGA now being turned into a musem in Canada.

I located the numbers S-51 for anteaters and just found web pages in Russian , but then I found this unusual flying machine powered by a big block Chevy engine no less.

A Stewart 51: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~osmith/s51/

http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~osmith/s51/hahn_01.jpg

[AntEater]

http://warfare.ru/image.aspx?img=0702ey70/update/jan2006/communa.jpg


Right, its the submarine salvage ship/submersible mothership Kommuna, build 1913
One of the oldest commissioned warships, most likely THE oldest still actively used.
Most likely the oldest existing Katamaran as well.

This ship survived the Tsar, two world wars, a revolution, the end of the soviet Union and is still going strong.

Kommuna was originally called Volkhov and was launched 1913 as a submarine salvage vessel. The russian navy at the time was pretty depending on german expertise in submarining (Krupp made a fortune building up the navy of a future enemy of Germany).

The imperial german navy had commissioned a Katamaran salvage vessel, SMS Vulcan, in the early 1900s, even before U-1 was comissioned.
Volkhov was to be an enlarged version of SMS Vulcan, strong enough to lift the largest submarines of the imperial russian navy out of the water and render assistance in case of an accident.
Volkhov was also fitted as a tender and had repair facilities and torpedo maintenance and storage rooms in the twin hulls
The diesels were build in Riga and were the first large diesels in a russian ship.
Volkhov was commissioned 1915 and rendered assistance not only to russian submarines, but also to british submarines based in Reval (Tallin) in WW1.

When the revolution came, Reval was abandoned and Volkhov elected her own Sailor's committee to run her. In 1922 she was renamed Kommuna.
In the 1920s, she salvaged the sunken british submarine L 55 and a russian submarine sunk by accident.
During WW2, she was holed up in Leningrad, salvaged destroyers, submarines and merchant ships sunk during german air raids. She was also deployed on the Volkhov river and even salvaged some tanks that had broken through the ice in winter.
In the 1960s, Kommuna was transferred to the Black Sea, where she continues to serve, now with a largely civilian crew.
All contemporary attack submarines are too large to be lifted by her, but she has contiued use as a support ship for small submersibles.

I ran across photos of her in a russian forum. I knew about that ship from an old (1978) fleet almanach, but I had never guessed this dinosaur to be still existing
:)