Soviet submarine B-39

"B-39" was a Project 641, also known by its NATO reporting name of "Foxtrot" class diesel-electric attack submarine of the Soviet Navy. The "B" (actually "Б") in her designation stands for большая ("bolshaya", "large") — Foxtrots are among the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built. Her keel was laid down on 9 February 1962 at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad (now known as Saint Petersburg). She was launched on 15 April 1967 and commissioned on 28 December 1967.

Transferred to the 9th Submarine Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, "B-39" was homeported in Vladivostok and conducted patrols throughout the North Pacific, along the coast of the United States and Canada, and ranging as far as the Indian Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. After the end of the Vietnam War, she often made port visits to Danang. During the early 1970s, "B-39" trailed a Canadian frigate through Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver Island.

"B-39" more than likely spent most of her career stalking the American naval vessels that are now her neighbors on San Diego Bay.

In 1989 in the Sea of Japan while charging batteries on the surface, "B-39" came within convert|500|yd|m|-2 of an "Oliver Hazard Perry"-class frigate. Both crews took pictures of each other.

"B-39" was decommissioned on 1 April 1994 and sold to Finland. She made her way from there through a series of sales to Vancouver Island in 1996 and to Seattle, Washington, in 2002 before arriving in San Diego, California, on 22 April 2005 and becoming an exhibit of the Maritime Museum of San Diego. During her sequence of owners she acquired the names "Black Widow" and "Cobra," neither of which she had during her commissioned career.

When "B-39" was made a museum the shroud around her attack periscope was cut away where it passes through her control room. As built, a Foxtrot's periscopes are only accessible from her conning tower, which is off-limits in the museum. With the shroud cut away, tourists can look through the partially-raised periscope (which is directed toward the "Midway" museum, some convert|500|yd|m|-2 away). However, the unidentified and unexplained change gives the false impression that one periscope could be used from the control room.

See also
* "B-427", a Foxtrot on display in Long Beach, California.
* Submarine

References

* [http://www.sdmaritime.com/contentpage.asp?ContentID=177 B-39 at the Maritime Museum of San Diego]
* [http://www.hnsa.org/ships/b39.htm HNSA Web Page: Soviet B-39]