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Underwater weapons - the next wave |
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Thursday, 03 May 2007 |
Just one determined diver can sink a ship or destroy an underwater
pipeline, so the race is on to develop new techniques to stop them 29 October 1955, 1.30 am: a huge explosion rips through the Soviet
battleship Novorossiysk as it rides at anchor in Sevastopol harbour on
the Black Sea coast. The ship starts to sink bow-first and then
capsizes, drowning more than 600 crew. It is one of the worst peacetime
naval disasters. Investigators were unable to find the cause of
the explosion, but when Italian naval divers received medals shortly
afterwards, some suspected they were being rewarded for a daring act of
sabotage. The Novorossiysk was a former Italian vessel, handed over to
the Soviet Union in 1947 in war reparations. Whatever the
truth, this mysterious explosion - along with incidents such as the
disappearance of Lionel "Buster" Crabb, a diver working for the British
intelligence service MI6, while examining a Soviet warship a few months
later - heaped fuel onto an already accelerating underwater arms race. |
