Two Russian Destroyers Wrecked In Nuclear Tests In 1950s off Novaya Zemla in the Guba Chernaya Bay
I was prowling around on Google Maps after learning about the location of the Soviet Nuclear tests involving target ships. Having looking along the northern coastline of Russia I’ve seen dozens of wrecked boats and other stuff like that so I figured if there was a shallow bay where ships were sunk in a test they would probably be pretty visible. Sure enough. I found what looks like two destroyers pretty much wrecked in a bay on the southern tip of the island. Not fully sunk either so I’m guessing they didn’t sink in the initial test and they were towed in here to sink from the damage they had sustained/were scuttled to avoid being a hazard.
There does not seem to be a lot of accessible data about these nuclear tests, at least as far as the damage to the target ships. It looks like the larger of the two is probably a Gnevny class destroyer, probably the Gromky or the Gremyashchy, both were targets in the 1957 test. Both were apparently left there until October when they both sunk according to the book Raising the Red Banner.
However the second one is a little more complicated, I think there’s a good chance it is the Uritsky the size would line up and I believe I can spot 3 funnels on it, but it is hard to tell I’m sure there are a myriad of other options it would be. The issue with Uritsky is that it is from the 1955 test, while being on the outside deeper into the bay, meaning when the other ship from the 1957 test was towed in, it would have had to go around Uritsky and placed there which doesn’t seem practical. So these two could be plainly wrong no doubt about that. The other problem that makes identifying these almost impossible is that the area is closed off to anyone but the military. The area is littered with what looks like infrastructure and base camps for the nuclear tests so lots of interesting finds all over the archipelago.
If anyone can dig up any more information or even better, pictures from ground level of these two wrecks that would be awesome.
If anyone speaks Russian, I believe this paper may hold some information we could use to identify the ships. I don’t have a link to it I just found it as a citation in an English paper as it referred to ships sunk in the tests.
V. A. Logachev, et al., Novaya Zemlya Test Site. Ensuring the General and Radio- logical Safety of the Nuclear tests. Facts, Testimonies, Memories (in Russian), (Moscow: IzdAT, 2000)