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EML ''Lembit'' is one of two mine-laying
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s built for the
Republic of Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
before World War II, and is now a
museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...
in Tallinn. She was launched in 1936 at
Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...
,
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
, and served in the Estonian Navy and the Soviet Navy. Until she was hauled out on 21 May 2011, ''Lembit'' was the oldest submarine still afloat in the world. Her sister ship, , was sunk in October 1941. ''Lembit'' is named for
Lembitu Lembitu (Estonian language, Estonian also: Lembit, died 21 September 1217) was an ancient Estonian senior (Elder (administrative title), elder) from Sakala County and military leader in the struggle against Livonian crusade, conquest of the Est ...
, an Estonian ruler who resisted the
Livonian Crusade The Livonian crusade consists of the various military Crusade, Christianisation campaigns in medieval Livonia – modern Latvia and Estonia – during the Pope, Papal-sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 12th–13th century. Overview Historic ...
s.


History

''Lembit'' is the only surviving warship of the pre-war Estonian Navy and in the
Baltic countries The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...
. Estonia is a maritime nation, and like every country with a long coastline to defend, it has to safeguard its territorial waters. With regard to experience gained and observed during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, submarines found their proper application in the pre–World War II Estonian Navy. The collection organised by the Submarine Fleet Foundation in May 1933 developed into one of the most successful undertakings among similar fundraising events nationwide. In the course of building and testing the two submarines, the Estonian crews received training in Great Britain between 1935 and 1937. Throughout 1937–1940, ''Lembit'' and her
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...
''Kalev'' were the most imposing vessels in the Estonian Navy. Their inactivity in the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union was a political decision. Lembit was christened by Alice, the wife of August Schmidt, Estonia's ambassador to United Kingdom, saying: "I name you 'Lembit'. May your service be happy and successful. May God bless all who serve aboard you."


World War II

In Spring 1937, ''Lembit'' joined the Estonian Navy, where she operated until the Soviet occupation in mid-1940. The submarine carried out one training torpedo attack in her three years of service in the Estonian Navy, but was never used in the minelaying role. The submarine was formally taken over by the
Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...
on 18 September 1940, by which time only five men of the submarine's Estonian crew remained on board. They were needed to assist the Soviet crew in learning unfamiliar machinery. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, ''Lembit'' was commissioned into the Soviet Baltic Fleet. The original name ''Lembit'' was initially retained. At least three of her original Estonian crew helped to operate the submarine during the war. ''Lembit'' participated with the Soviet Baltic Fleet in military operations. ''Lembit'' carried out a total of seven patrols during the German-Soviet war.


Patrols


1941

* War patrol 10–21 August. She laid twenty mines near Cape Arcona. Some ships which were damaged in November 1941, due to British and German mines, were described in Soviet literature as ''Lembit'' 'successes'. * War patrol 19–26 October. * 4–5 November. In battle conditions and through a broken icefield, transferred from
Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...
to
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
.


1942

* War patrol 17 August - 22 September. On 13 September, ''Lembit'' was ordered to return to base. Her commander decided to stay in position for one more day to charge batteries. On 14 September, she attacked a convoy and badly damaged the transport ship ''Finnland'' (), which sank on 15 September, at 59°36'8 N/21°14'5 E (the ship was subsequently raised and re-commissioned on 1 July 1943). During a counterattack which involved the dropping of some fifty depth charges, the submarine sustained serious damage, including a fire in the second group of batteries; six men were wounded. After some repairs ''Lembit'' returned to base. This episode earned her the nickname "Immortal submarine".


1944

* Awarded the
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...
, 6 March. * War patrol 2–18 October. Laid twenty mines. Destroyed the Dutch merchant ship ''Hilma Lau'' () on 13 October. * War patrol 24 November - 15 December.


1945

* War patrol 23 March - 14 April. Also on Lembit's mines was damaged on 24 November 1944 the German auxiliary patrol vessel ''V 305 / Halbertstadt''.


After World War II

On 18 June 1946, ''Lembit'' was renamed to ''U-1'', to ''S-85'' on 9 June 1949, to ''STZh-24'' on 30 January 1956 and to ''UTS-29'' on 27 December 1956. Some time between 1949 and 1956 she possibly carried the designation ''PZM-1'' (''PTsM-1?'') for some time. The original name was probably restored when she was decommissioned and returned to
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
as a museum ship in 1979. ''Lembit'' was presented with the Order of The Red Banner on 6 March 1945 for her victories earlier in the German-Soviet war. She was withdrawn from active duty on 17 January 1946 and become a training boat. On 12 January 1949 ''Lembit'' was included among medium submarines. She was stricken (disarmed) on 10 June 1955. She was transferred to the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard on 3 August 1957 and subsequently towed to Gorky (now
Nizhni Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...
). Here ''Lembit'' was preserved as an experimental boat and an example of British submarine design. Her hatch for the pressure-tight anti-aircraft gun storage shaft was of particular interest. It was copied into designs for the missile hatches of new Soviet submarines. On 28 August 1979 exactly 38 years after she had left
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
, ''Lembit'' returned – under tow. After a lengthy overhaul, the submarine was opened to the public as a war memorial, (more precisely, as a branch of the Museum of the Soviet Baltic Fleet), on 5 May 1985. She, along with other artifacts, was used to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. ''Lembit'' was one of three submarine war memorials in the USSR in 1987, along with ''S-56'' in the Far East, and ''K-21'' in the Far North. There had been plans for displaying all three vessels out of the water, but a floating crane which was to have been used, (which had been moved from Kronstadt), lost its boom during the tow.


After regaining independence

After the collapse of the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1991 and the subsequent dissolution of its navy, the submarine was taken over by Estonian officials on 27 April 1992 – a few Defence League men hoisted an Estonian flag on the vessel, meeting no resistance. ''Lembit'' is one of two surviving pre-war Estonian warships; the other is the small gunboat ''Uku'' on Lake Peipsi, which is a wreck. ''Lembit'' received the honorary nomination of 'vessel No. 1' in the new Estonian Navy on 2 August 1994. After a long and expensive restoration, the submarine was opened to the public, as a department of the Estonian Maritime Museum, with a collection of other naval weapons. ''Lembit'' is one of the few surviving pre–World War II submarines (among others are the Finnish , built in 1933, and Soviet ''K-21'', built in 1937).


Preservation

In late 2002 ''Lembit'' caught fire. One person was killed in the blaze, but nothing of historic value was lost. The inside was filled with flammable wood and rubber. Nobody knew how or why it caught fire but through 2003 it was not viewable by the public. The original design drawings were discovered in a
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
n archive in 2010. They were scanned and sent to Estonia. A total of over 200 drawings were sent, so that they could be used for restoration. The Estonian Maritime Museum developed plans to place the vessel into the museum building ( Lennusadam) in 2008. ''Lembit'' was pulled out of the water on 21 May 2011, using another exhibit at the same museum - BTS-4 (an armoured recovery vehicle, based on the T-54
tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...
). The
winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension (physics), tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a Bobb ...
ing was done on a ramp. The submarine was missing its external torpedo tube covers. They used one original, that was stored somewhere else and the drawings (obtained from England), to construct three replicas. Most of the external paint was also removed, for minor de-rusting and the removal of some small dents. It was anticipated that the total restoration, would cost over 360,000 Euros. The submarine was "parked" next to the Lennusadam building, until the night of 6/7 July 2011, when they began to tow it into the Lennusadam. The towing was done the same way as when it was pulled out of water and it took until 10 July. The Lennusadam opened to visitors in May 2012, with ''Lembit'' now undercover for visitors to explore, both inside and out.The news show "Reporter", on Kanal 2, on 6 May 2011.


References


External links


Official website of the Estonian Navyhttp://www.online.ee/~peeprada (in Estonian)EML Lembit on Estonian stamp and first-day cover (1996)One of the scanned drawings published by ''Eesti Ekspress''Pictures and video of the operationPictures of ''Lembit'' at Lennusadam; link to an Estonian news site, with a gallery

of ‘’Lembit’’ being launched at Barrow in Furness; from the Sankey photo archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lembit Kalev-class submarines Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1936 ships World War II submarines of Estonia World War II submarines of the Soviet Union Cold War submarines of the Soviet Union Museum ships in Estonia Captured ships