Dive the Moskva

[tursiops]

At the depths in question, sounds like 45 F (Black Sea - Climate)

That's probably pretty close, at depth, altnhough the location reported in Satellite Image Pinpoints Russian Cruiser Moskva As She Burned - Naval News is shallower, perhaps 120 ft, so warmer. And easily reachable....

 

[TravelGas]

There seems to be very wide variations in the estimed depth. I have now seen everything from 120' to 390'. Where did you see the 120' foot figure ? If it really is in 120' of water this may later turn into a major dive destination.

 

[Jake 10]

they're attempting to salvage it

Russia's 110-Year-Old Salvage Ship Deploying To Moskva Wreck: Report

Kommuna, an antique Russian Navy salvage ship, has embarked on a mission to investigate a potential salvage operation for the Moskva wreck.

www.thedrive.com

Yes the Ukrainian farmers sent a couple of John Deers to recover the Mockva

 

[tursiops]

There seems to be very wide variations in the estimed depth. I have now seen everything from 120' to 390'. Where did you see the 120' foot figure ? If it really is in 120' of water this may later turn into a major dive destination.

I put the reported location into Google Earth. The bathymetric data are from the Gebco charts.

 

[Wookie]

Here's hoping the salvage ships get added to the pile on the bottom.

Oy, now you're really tempting me to put a boat together....

 

[Jake 10]

Oy, now you're really tempting me to put a boat together....

Let’s go

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Oh, or course. Forgive me. I don’t know anyone who served on any US warship who took a spin around the Black Sea. [/SNARK]

The USN definitely drives surface ships around the Black Sea from time to time (Montreaux Convention rules are no more than two ships of under 10,000 tons for any any non-Black Sea nation, with a time limit), but I highly doubt the Carter would go in there. As far as I know nobody's tried an underwater transit of the Dardanelles since WWI; the Allies lost eight submarines playing around in the Sea of Marmara (although in return they sank seven warships and 203 transport/merchant craft). Not something you'd try to squeeze a 452-ft nuclear boat with a 40-ft beam through underwater, even before considering all the shipping traffic you'd have to dodge (and the minor nicety that the Montreaux Convention doesn't allow for submerged transits, or for that matter transit of non-Black Sea nation submarines).

Besides, the Moskva was a 40-year old ship that reportedly had not been fully upgraded and had been open to inspection multiple times since the end of the Cold War (notes from those showed her fire suppression systems were never updated, all but one of the firefighting pumps were located in her engineering spaces, her firefighting gear was in a deteriorated state, and equipment such as valve handles and fire axes had been heavily painted over). I highly doubt there was anything onboard the US/NATO would be in a particular rush to get; the most valuable information would be whatever ELINT assets hoovered up from her radar and comms before she went off the air for good.

I did feel the Ukrainian promotion of the Moskva as a dive wreck and the tongue-in-cheek listing of the ship as an "underwater cultural heritage site" was well in keeping with their A+ trolling game so far.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Apparently there is an earlier Moskva--a WWII destroyer--wreck in the Black Sea.

Soviet destroyer Moskva - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"In 2011, the wreck of Moskva was discovered by Romanian divers at a depth of 40 meters (130 ft) 20 kilometers (12 mi) from Constanța."

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

For those interested, here's the 1936 Montreux treaty. I'll be reading it later: Wayback Machine

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

As far as I know nobody's tried an underwater transit of the Dardanelles since WWI;

Yeah, no dive scooter is going to have enough run time to get from Greece to the Moskva.