Juliett 484 Submarine: K-77 The Widowmaker - Military Ships and Submarines (Decommissioned) on Waymarking.com

The K-77 was the seventh Project 651 (NATO designation Juliett) submarine built by the Soviet Union. Its keel was laid in the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard in Gorky, USSR on January 31 1963 with a length of 282 feet and a beam of 31 feet. The boat was launched on March 11 1965.

The K-77 was commissioned on October 31 1965 and assigned to the Soviet Northern Fleet. The K-77 was manned by 12 officers, 16 noncommissioned officers and 54 crewmembers.

The Project 651 submarines were initially planned by the Soviet Navy in the late 1950's as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States, targeting East Coast cities in particular. Later, when armed with more accurate cruise missiles, their mission evolved to a cruise missile platform for anti-carrier operations. In essence, the mission of Juliett-class submarines became to shadow and in the event of hostilities, destroy United States aircraft carriers at sea and in port.

The K-77's exact missions and cruise logs remain a mystery. Juliett-class submarines were spotted shadowing American aircraft carriers in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean in the mid-1960's. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the K-77 often cruised in the Mediterranean, off the coast of West Africa and at least once in the Caribbean in the vicinity of the United States Virgin Islands. In 1987, the K-77 was transferred as semi-obsolescent to the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Close inspection of the K-77 during its post-cold war stint in Helsinki revealed papers that suggested the submarine had been used to shadow Norwegian Kobben-class submarines at some time in its career. When and where this happened is unclear.

Juliett-class submarines were withdrawn from active service beginning in 1988. The K-77 was decommissioned sometime between 1991 and 1994. By the end of 1994, all Juliett-class submarines had been removed from service.

At the end of the Cold War, Finnish businessman Jari Komulainen was married to the only daughter of Finland's President Mauno Koivisto, and he used his influence as Finland's "first son-in-law" to convince the Russian government to also sell him two Juliett-class submarines, one of which was the K-77. This Juliett briefly became an off-beat bar and restaurant as well as a tourist attraction.

The Finnish attempt to use the K-77 as a restaurant/tourist attraction did not turn out to be the lucrative investment that Komulainen had hoped for. In 1998, the submarine was leased to a Canadian promoter and towed to Tampa Bay, Florida. However, plans to develop the K-77 as a tourist attraction in St. Petersburg harbor proved a failure because the location was too shallow for the 23-foot draft of the K-77. The investors were forced to move the submarine to a remote site away from throngs of tourists. In time, the promoter was forced to file for bankruptcy. Control of the K-77 reverted again to Komulainen.

Komulainen was not interested in returning the K-77 to Finland. Seeking to sell the submarine, he attempted to auction it on E-Bay for a starting price of $1 million (US). There were no serious bidders.

However, the auction attempt did draw the notice of Intermedia Film Equities Ltd., who chartered K-77 for $200,000 to shoot the action drama K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. In 2000, the submarine was towed to Halifax, Nova Scotia for filming. K-19: The Widowmaker is the story of the actions of Soviet sailors faced with a nuclear reactor meltdown while on the maiden voyage of the Hotel-class submarine K-19 in 1961.

In 2002, the K-77 was purchased by a non-profit organization and towed from Nova Scotia to Rhode Island.

Type of vessel: russian sub Juliett class Admission? Cost?: varies Hours of use: Not listed Parking Coordinates: Not Listed Date: Not listed

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