Soviet Project 651 (NATO: ‘Juliett’) Class boat, K-77

The Soviet submarine K-77 was constructed at “Krasnoe Sormovo” yard (Hull identifier 515) with her keel laid in January of 1963. From 11 Mar 1965 until 31 Oct 1965, she served with the Northern Fleet, and from 1977 she was renamed B-77 and transferred to the Baltic Fleet.
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Initially laid down as K-77, in March 1963 her first crew was formed at the 12th Special Submarine unit of the Northern Fleet, the sailors coming from a project 629 boat (Golf class). The command staff was appointed from officers of the 4th Northern Fleet submarine squadron; from Mar 1963 to Apr 1964 the crew spent learning about the boat’s structure using drawings and technical descriptions. Practical skills and operations followed; the new boat was towed to the completion yard of the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, Sevastopol where it remained until Nov 1964. The crew practiced service operations and studied materiel related to the boat's detailed operation and left Sevastopol on another newly completed Project 651 from the 153rd Black Sea Fleet Brigade. By November this crew were moved to Gorky, where they first encountered their submarine (part of the 104th brigade, Black Sea Fleet), which was still under construction. On 11 Mar 1965, the boat was launched but the traditional bottle of champagne did not break on her hull of a submarine due to her rubber anechoic tile coating…

Captain 3rd rank N.P. Pavlinov then more forcefully and efficiently finally managed to break a bottle of rum on her bow. From Mar 1965 to Jun 1965 completion of final fittings afloat and mooring tests were all carried out according to plan. Then in Jun 1965 K-77 was placed on the TPD-12 floating dock on the River Volga, and transported to the Baltic via the Canal to Belomorsk. Under her own power for the first time she then sailed to Severodvinsk, her operational delivery base.

In summer of 1965 she commenced her factory and state sea trials and in October she received her interior appointments and furnishings; she then loaded her first supplies and on October 31 K-77 officially entered service as patrol-ready. In November (1965) the boat joined the Soviet Northern Fleet, 35th Division, 1st Red Banner Squadron, based at Malaya Lopatkina Bay in Murmansk and transferred to this permanent deployment base. In the following years she participated in Northern Fleet exercises and in September 1969 she was moved to HP Ura Bay.

In October 1969 she was assigned to the 9th Special Submarine Squadron, and in April-June 1970 she completed all her combat readiness tasks in the Mediterranean and took part in active ocean maneuvers. From October 1971 to Jan 1973, K-77 had her first overhaul at SRZ-35 (Rosta, Murmansk) and in 1973 completed her full combat training course with live torpedo and missile firing, also participating in Northern Fleet exercises.

From May 1974 until November 1974, K-77 worked in the Mediterranean with the 5th Operational Squadron and was assigned the task of shadowing the US 6th Fleet’s Carrier Battle Groups of USS America, USS Forrestal and USS Independence. Then, from Jul 26 until 4 Aug 1974, the boat was authorised some maintenance and resupply time, that included a crew rest in Alexandria (Egypt).

From December 1975 until Apr 1976 K-77 carried out all assigned combat tasks under Capt.1st Rank ​​Levin in the Central Atlantic. While underway she was updated with information about the passage of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga to the Mediterranean Sea with her group of 7 escort ships. On 13 January 1976 K-77 was ordered to diverge from the aircraft carrier group, which sailed to the Greater Antilles, 900 miles east of Puerto Rico, and on 7 Feb was then ordered to proceed to Conakry, Guinea, for replenishment and rest until 28 Feb 1976.

Next, she was ordered to Alexandria for maintenance On 10 Mar 1976. Then on 18 Mar while off Gibraltar, the boat was ordered to return to Vidyaevo instead; however, on the 30 Mar at 0130 hours a fire broke out in K-77’s 5th compartment (in which were present the Nr. 3 and 4 groups of batteries). The fire was extinguished using a freon volumetric extinguishing system but due to unintentional freon emission in the 7th compartment instead of the 5th, the electrical engineering Captain-Lieutenant Anatoly Alekseevich Kochnev, and the Mechanics Commander on watch, both died. Petty Officer Paul Karlovich on duty in the remote automatic control compartment of the diesel engines managed to don his IDA-59 respirator but soon lost consciousness, although he did manage to operate the valves that had caused oxygen starvation with a fatal outcome, prior to expiration. Fortunately, nine sailors who were asleep in the compartment thereafter regained consciousness after breathing oxygen administered by the ship’s Medical Officer. There was a post incident enquiry as to the causes of this tragedy.

From Apr 1977 to Dec 1978, K-77 was overhauled for fire damage at SRZ-10 Polyarny and in July 25 she was renamed B-77. She started her 1978 service campaign under Capt.1st Rank Eremina after the main crew arrived. From Dec 1949 to Jul 1980 she began patrolling on the Mediterranean and from July to September 1981 she made her sixth and last operational visit to the Mediterranean Sea, where she was assigned a combat patrol area in the Adriatic, north of the Strait of Tunis. On 23 August, the crew had rest and recreation leave organized for them, so as to provide some relief from the monotony of their duties.

Meanwhile, the boat was charging its batteries when at 2355 hours an emergency alarm rang, due to a fire in the sub’s 6th compartment, breaking out in the middle diesel engine at the aft bulkhead. Personnel in the 6th compartment fled to the stern, and the compartment was quickly sealed off, after which the fire was extinguished. It turned out that before changing the watch, the mechanic on duty who was charged with replenishing the fuel tank above the middle diesel engine, had checked the nearly full supply tank through its ventilation tube, but apparently some of the diesel fuel overflowed with great force through the edges of the funnel and landed directly on the diesel engine’s exhaust manifold (which was at 700 degrees). Fortunately, there were no injuries. Medical care was given to the returning crew and damage was limited, enabling rapid repairs to be made.

By September 1989 to March 1991 March B-77 had her last major overhaul at SRZ-35 in Murmansk but her unit (the 35th Brigade) was disbanded and she was transferred to the 7th Brigade, 9th Operational Squadron. In August 1991 she carried out a cruise around Scandinavia from Vidyaevo to Liepaja (Latvia) and in September of that year she was reassigned to the 58th Brigade in Liepaja. In Jul 1993, she took part in the Navy parade in Baltiysk and participated in a documentary being made about this Navy Day Celebration by DKBF (?). In October 1993 October B-77 (nee K-77) was transferred to the 22nd Brigade of the Baltic Fleet, Kronstadt and then in Feb. 1994 she was withdrawn from the permanent Naval Submarine Readiness Forces and transferred to the Inactive Reserve. Subsequently, in April of 1994 she was officially decommissioned, stricken from the Reserve Lists and prepared for permanent inactivation.

JULY 1994: K-77 was Sold by the Latvian Government to Finnish National (a private merchant businessman) Jari Komulainen’s Sub-Expo Ltd., examined by representatives of insurance and towing companies, and relocated to Finland’s port of Helsinki. Once arrived, K-77’s interior spaces were slightly modified to receive a bar and restaurant enterprise, and she was renamed “U-484.” Eventually, it was determined that the proceeds from her display were not profitable enough to continue and after several years tied up to Helsinki’s docks as a restaurant & museum display, she was then leased for five years to a business enterprise known as Canadian Submarine B.C for a sum of US$200,000 dollars yearly.

Following this agreement, in 97/98 K-77 was towed across the Atlantic to Tampa Bay in Florida (USA), to a public yacht harbor at St. Petersburg (Fl). She was subsequently sub-leased for 30 months as a public tourist attraction, to be moored to the city pier. However, her draft (20 feet) proved to be too great for that pier’s dockside channel (38 feet depth, with 15 feet of river mud) and she had to be anchored at some distance away from the pier instead, with paying tourist visitors transferred out to her by speedboats.

In the 1998 to 1999 period “U-484″was visited by more than 50,000 visitors. But the income from was never profitable enough to cover the company’s considerable costs and expenses required for maintaining her, so in Feb 1999, the Canadian company now known as Russian Submarine B.C. filled for bankruptcy. The sub as a display was then closed and sealed, and a group named ‘Sub-Expo Ltd.’ in turn sold it for $1,000,000, after placing a unique advertisement on eBay for her sale (the first time ever that a former military submarine had been offered for sale on eBay!).

Then, in 2000, InterMedia Film Equities Ltd. considered her for use as an authentic, realistic set-prop on which to film the epic submarine movie “K-19: The Widowmaker” and rented her to the movie’s production company for $200,000. The sub was consequently again towed some 2,000-miles over a 2-week period to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and docked there for that purpose.

In 2000-2001, K-77 was ‘cosmetically’ altered to impersonate the Soviet sub K-19, a Soviet Hotel Class boat (SSBN), with “plastic surgery” done on her sail to extend it by 25-meters and installation of a nozzle  at her stern, topped by a characteristic ‘Hotel’ ridge, plus a huge, three-ballistic missile fake extension. Thus, her use as a movie set enabled foregoing CGI FX (computer imaging) and contributing a very convincing air of visual authenticity to the movie, thus giving the movie its palpable air of believability, a touch acclaimed by naval buffs and viewers alike.

The filming for this film was done in April-May 2001, after her actual exit from the floating dock, all of which was done at the main base of the Royal Canadian Navy due to its ‘ambient light quality' replicating that of the Murmansk facility in the USSR. After the filming was completed, K-77 was put on public display (at Halifax) at $50 per ticket, but interest in her sadly waned after a while.

At this point, the US Aircraft Carrier USS Saratoga Museum located in Providence (Rhode Island, USA) then declared its interest in obtaining K-77 as an exhibit for its Saratoga Museum Foundation, in a proposed effort to enhance attraction of the former US Naval Air Station Quonset Point in Rhode Island, where the carrier was docked. A funding campaign thereafter started so as to enable the addition of U-484 (ex-K-77) to the museum exhibits. Interestingly, the very genuine connection K-77 shared with the carrier, having formerly been assigned to shadow Saratoga in her active patrolling days, seemed to meaningfully enhance her potential as a museum display next to the Saratoga.

Therefore, in March of 2002 (22-27th) K-77 was again taken in tow from Halifax to Providence (RI) and once arrived was prepared to open her to the public and museum visitors on the river adjacent to the Collier Point Park on the Providence River (not at the originally proposed Quonset Point site). Her display was particularly relevant given her earlier sea duty, when she had been assigned to shadow and monitor the Saratoga’s Battle Group, and this history thus tied her admirably to the carrier in that context. Accordingly, work went on preparing her for regular exhibition for several months and in August of 2002, K-77 was officially opened for museum visitors.

Earlier in her post sea-duty days as an exhibit boat in Helsinki, Finland, her hull had been opened up in several places so as to allow visitors easier access to her interior than via her regular crew hatches and although these new access entryways had been fitted with nominally water-resisting doors, there were not capable of withstanding actual complete water submersion and the force of severe storm weather surges. This would shortly have tragic consequences for the boat.

On April 19th of 2007 there was an unusually formidable Force-5 ("Nor'easter") storm that hit the Rhode Island coast, damaging much of that coast. The added visitor entryways that had been cut into the boat were swamped by extreme storm surges and the boat then began to take on water that caused listing to its port, quickly filling the boat’s stern compartments. By evening she had sunk at the pier-side berth, where she sat on the soft river muddy bottom (completely submerged) with a slight angle to port.

The boat was examined in April-May of 2007 for possible salvaging soon after it sank, but the report assessment indicated that the raising and full recovery of her 3,850 tonne bulk would be extremely costly, requiring expenditure of perhaps as much as 1.4 million US dollars, which the museum foundation could not afford. Eventually, however, some money was raised and by August of 2008 preparatory work was done for lifting her with the help of a surplus army landing ship (2031, ‘New Orleans’) in support and used as a diving platform. This was eventually accomplished by July 2009 using hydraulic pumps, and with the help of a US Navy Diving Team, she was raised up, refloated and secured on pontoons, after a volume far in excess of 55,000+ gallons of river water had been expelled from her.

Sadly, her 15 month exposure to river water during her submersion had severely corroded and degraded her interior fittings, also causing extensive exterior damage, so when fully sufficient funds were found to be lacking to restore her to displayable condition, she was offered for sale to any interested parties (including an entry on eBay for 1.4 million dollars that had no takers). When the offer proved fruitless,  the difficult decision was made to consign her for scrap and she was sold to a nearby Rhode Island Maritime salvaging yard (Rhode Island Recycled Metals LLC) and on August 11, 2009, K-77 was towed 1000 yards to their nearby site up-river, for dismantling and scraping.

Over the course of the the next 5 years her salvaging was carried out, but in 2014 salvage operations were halted, due to  environmental judicial action alleging that deadlines that had been set for the removal of her remains from the river (with the riverfront restored) had been exceeded. In 2017 a court order mandated removal of her remains (roughly 60% of her hull structure) that were still in the river.

Then, on 21 March 2021, while her hull continued to be broken up, a fire started that destroyed a further section of it. This final, most-unfortunate and inglorious circumstance thus sadly ended the long and storied chronicle of K-77's life.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The story of K-77, a Russian Juliette Class (Project 651) boat that had a fascinating service and post-active-duty history, and richly deserved to be preserved as one of only two rare survivors of her class, experienced a tragic and melancholy ending...an ending completely unsuited to her importance in the developmental history of a unique, conventionally powered, pre-nuclear Soviet cruise missile submarine design in which K-77 had played a substantial role in the first three decades of the Cold War era.

Today, aside from her surviving sister boat, the K-24, (“U-481”) which resides as a museum boat at dockside anchor alongside the historic German port of Peenemunde’s docks (the Peenemunde Naval Museum), with K-77’s sad loss, there are no others of her type left anywhere in the world, today.

For what it’s worth, K-77 (albeit in cosmetically modified form) may only be viewed today in noted woman film Director Katherine Bigelow’s epic movie, “K-19: The Widowmaker.”  By an odd coincidence, the actual ‘Hotel Class’ boat that K-19 had played the part of in that movie had also resisted the breaking of a celebratory launching bottle of rum across its bow, just as had been K-77’s identical experience...a coincidence that might be interpreted by an old sea-faring mariner as a bad omen!  In the end, however, it is somewhat affirming and uplifting to know that despite her loss, K-77’s memory has been preserved at least in part by a woman (film director Katherine Bigelow), given K-77's NATO designator as a JULIETT Class boat!

It has been said that a noted Naval Architect once observed that the Juliett boat was a “particularly attractive (submarine) design.” Having personally had the opportunity of making K-77’s acquaintance in the 1995, while she was docked in Helsinki Harbor, still fresh from her decommissioning as a Soviet warship, I would have to agree wholeheartedly with that discerning pronouncement, for if one can call any submarine ‘attractive’, it would have to be the Juliette Class boats (of which K-24 and K-77 were both representatives). The Juliett boats had a balanced, clean and aesthetically pleasing appearance by any contemporary standard of comparison.

On the 20th anniversary of her loss, it is particularly important and worthwhile to remember her as being a worthy and important piece of Cold War history that should have been saved from destruction.