Vesikko
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In World War II Vesikko was a submarine of the Finnish Navy. It was designed by Dutch Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag (I.v.S) and built in 1933 by the Chrichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. It served as a direct prototype (named as CV-707) for German Class A II submarines. During the sailing-seasons 1933 and 1934 the German Navy carried out trials in the Achipelago of Turku. In 1936 Finnish Navy bought it and named it as Vesikko.
Vesikko was one of five submarines to serve the Finnish navy. The other four were the three "Vetehinen class" boats Vetehinen, Vesihiisi and Iku-Turso (named after Finnish mythology characters, see Kalevala) and the small Saukko (Finnish for otter).
During World War II Vesikko patrolled the Gulf of Finland and in 1941 managed to torpedo one Soviet merchant vessel called Vyborg.
After war it has been decommissioned, as peace treaty obligations forbade the use of submarines in the military of Finland, until Soviet Union collapsed. The submarine currently stands at the island fortress Suomenlinna and serves as a museum.
Technical specifications
- Dimensions
- Length: 40.9 m
- Width: 4.1 m
- Height: 4.2 m
- Operational details
- Speed: 13/8 knots (24/15 km/h)
- Range: 1500 miles (2,400 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) or 150 hours on the surface; submerged 50 miles (80 km) at 4 knots (7 km/h) or 13 hours.
- Crew: 18 to 20
- Maximum depth: 100 m.
- Crash dive: 45 seconds to 9.3 m.
- Armaments
- 5 torpedoes of 535 mm diameter.
- One 20 mm Anti-Aircraft gun
- One 12.7 mm Anti-Aircraft machine gun
- Other equipment
- 2 MWM diesel engines of 700 horsepower (520 kW)
- 2 Siemens electric motors of 360 horsepower (270 kW)
- Atlas Werke 2x6 microphones as Asdic. listening devices.
- Supplies
- 9.6 tons diesel oil.
- 1.2 tons fresh water.fi:Vesikko (sukellusvene)