Soviet submarine K-19

K-19 was a Hotel class submarine which suffered several severe accidents. It was the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with ballistic nuclear missiles.

Construction of K-19 began 17 October 1958. The boat was christened 8 April 1959. Traditionally Russian vessels are christened by women, however, K-19 was christened by a man. The bottle of champagne bounced off the boat without breaking. Many of the crew took the christening as a bad omen. The boat was completed 12 November 1960, and commissioned 30 April 1961.

On 4 July 1961, K-19 was conducting exercises in the North Atlantic close to Southern Greenland when she developed a major leak in her reactor coolant system. The engineering officers and crew worked for extended periods in high-radiation areas to jury-rig a new coolant system. All of the crew received substantial doses of radiation, and eight men died of radiation exposure. The crew was evacuated to a diesel submarine, and K-19 was towed to the home base. The damaged reactors were removed and replaced, a process that took two years. The submarine acquired the nickname "Hiroshima."

On 15 November 1969 K-19 collided with USS Gato (SSN-615) in the Barents Sea at a depth of 200 feet. She was able to surface by means of an emergency ballast tank blow. The impact completely destroyed the bow sonar systems and mangled the covers of the forward torpedo tubes.

On 24 February 1972 a fire broke out onboard K-19 while the submarine was at a depth of 120 meters (380 feet) some 1300 kilometers (700 miles) from Newfoundland. A total of 28 sailors died in the fire. The rescue operation lasted more than 40 days and involved over 30 ships.

In 1994, K-19 was transferred to the naval repair yard at Polyarny[?].

The movie K-19: Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, tells a controversially fictionalized story of the 1961 events.