INS Kurusura, the War memorial

It was a lovely evening at the Ramakrishna beach, Vizag. I was walking through the beach road towards the submarine museum Kurusura and experiencing the imposingly attractive beauty of Sun set with vanishing silhouettes of the ships in the horizon. Vizag, with its panoramic beauty of wide spread shoreline, has been a prominent port of India with rich maritime history since the age, even before the colonies of foreigners was set up.

The submarine,INS Kurusura

The idea that modified the decommissioned INS Kurusura submarine, into a museum was a commendable offer of witnessing a submarine in reality. The science of warfare being rapidly modernized and the museum gave an opportunity to see the evolution of the scientific principle that added fins to the dream of human being on its way of becoming an underwater predator for the enemies. There are two walls in a submarine, it allows water in the gap between two walls to sink into the water and pump out the water to float.

INS Kurusura

As we entered into the hefty vessel with full of mechanical arrangements, the insufficiently narrow passage of the submarine with comprehensible depictions of underwater life of the mariners, hark back to the days of their underwater missions. It was like watching a compact moving fort of modern time, where the arrangement of beds were provided almost one third of the capacity of the crew members and they had to rest on a rotation basis, no privacy, no scope to communicate with the family members and no extra space to keep fit or for physical exercises. To become a member of this elite force, the sailors have to qualify for prestigious dolphin badge. The submarine with seven compartments could dive with 72-crew members, had slimmest arrangements for kitchen, wash basin, toilets, dining room, radio room etc.

The torpedoes

The Soviet built, diesel and electrically powered submarines could sail under water at a stretch for 3 to 5 days, could travel 16000 nautical miles without refuelling. The submarine served for under water patrolling, could dive 250 metres underwater and even more when needed. With the advancement in the defence research, these specific class submarines are now replaced by technologically more advanced and indigenously developed submarines. Numerous researches have given the battle ship to play a dependable role for their country in battles. Modern scientific research on submarines made it technologically more advanced and fit for the War and Oceanic studies. The submarine of Indian Navy served for the nation commendably for three decades and now as a War memorial gives a virtual feeling of life under the world of oceans.