Submarine Sinks En-route To Thailand

[george]

Soviet-era sub sinks while being towed

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: -- A Cold War-era Soviet-built submarine that was being towed to a museum in Thailand took on water and sank off northwestern Denmark, Danish officials and the vessel's Thai owner said Tuesday.

No people or weapons were on board the Whiskey-class submarine when it sank Monday in an area known as Jysk Reef, about 35 miles off the coast of the Jutland peninsula, the Danish navy said.

A tug boat was towing the 246-foot-long vessel when it started taking on water, forcing the crew to cut it loose for their own safety, navy spokesman Klaus Randrup Rasmussen said. There was no risk of pollution because the submarine was not carrying any fuel, weapons or other hazardous material, he said.

However, the Royal Danish Administration of Navigation and Hydrography issued a warning to other ships in the area because the depth of the wreck was not known.

"It is in an area with a lot of shipping and fishing and cannot be left on the bottom," said Michael Skov, an agency spokesman.

In Thailand, the submarine's owner, Jesada Dejsakulrit, confirmed the accident. He told the Bangkok Post last month that he bought the vessel for his Jesada Technik Museum in Nakhon Pathom Province west of Bangkok.

The Soviet Union built more than 200 Whiskey-class submarines during the Cold War, many of which are now being offered for sale by private companies.

Timo Wallin, the submarine's previous owner, used it as a floating museum in Sweden for about 10 years. He sold it to the Thai museum in early 2005.

"I am sorry to hear what happened to the submarine and don't yet understand why it sank," he said.

According to Wallin's Web site, the ship was built in 1957 and decommissioned in 1991. Named U-194, it could carry a crew of 56 and a had range of approximately 17,500 miles.

The Swedish newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad reported it had recently been repaired in Poland and was being towed by a whaling ship to Thailand.

--nwsource.com 2007-01-06

[HarryHacker]

I have never heard of the Jesada Technik Museum in Nakhon Pathom, any pointers to where it is would be appreciated.

[llso]

There was an interesting article in the Bangkok Post a while ago about that museum. It is owned by some wealthy Thai and has all sorts of rare and vintage vehicles including a London double decker bus. They mentioned at the time he was going to buy this submarine. You could try a serch on Bangkok post but pretty sure if you went to Nakhon Pathom almost anyone could tell you where it is at. I have called the local TAT office in provnces to find out where something is.

Nakhon Pathom is only an hour drive West of BKK , very nice town hardly any Falang at all and has a very large famous Chedi temple there.

LL

[HarryHacker]

There was an interesting article in the Bangkok Post a while ago about that museum. It is owned by some wealthy Thai and has all sorts of rare and vintage vehicles including a London double decker bus. They mentioned at the time he was going to buy this submarine. You could try a serch on Bangkok post but pretty sure if you went to Nakhon Pathom almost anyone could tell you where it is at. I have called the local TAT office in provnces to find out where something is.

Nakhon Pathom is only an hour drive West of BKK , very nice town hardly any Falang at all and has a very large famous Chedi temple there.

LL

Yep, I have been to see the Chedi in NP, thanks for the info, I will also do some googling.

[sriracha john]

additional information from excerpts of:

Soviet-era submarine sinks near Denmark

HELSINKI - A Soviet-era submarine being towed to a museum in Thailand has sunk near Denmark, Danish television reported Tuesday.

According to Denmark's body overseeing sea navigation, the sub (NATO codename Whiskey) was being tugged from a Polish shipyard.

There were no people, arms or fuel onboard the submarine, and the vessel does not pose an environmental hazard, Danish authorities said.

However, because the submarine sank to a depth of about 25 meters (75 feet), it represents a potential obstacle to navigation, and authorities have promised to salvage it.

A total of 236 diesel electric submarines of Project 613 (Whiskey class) were built in the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1957, based on German Type XXI submarines.

The U.S.S.R. gave 45 such subs to allied and friendly nations.

- Russian News and Information Agency

===========================================

Here's a photo of the sub that sank, U-194 Russian Whiskey Sub, when it was still in Sweden and for sale at only 250,000 Euros:

http://www.hugohein.com/other/uboat.194/u-194.specs.htm

===========================================

My sub tracked a few of these when they were still active in the Pacific ... they were old and noisy...

[lampard10]

I thought submarines were supposed to sink! ( a Thai point of view, proves it works)

[h90]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_class_submarine

not really a masterpiece of technologie, more a bad clone of the german submarine.

So a simillar thing than the Thai Rolex arround the corner, just bigger in size.....

[pumpuiman]

recently been repaired in Poland

And their wondering why it sank? Probably the screen doors the Poles put in.

[bina]

I thought submarines were supposed to sink! ( a Thai point of view, proves it works)

same thought jumped into my head too...

guess thai logical thinking should never upset me then huh?

bina

[Tony Clifton]

I thought submarines were supposed to sink! ( a Thai point of view, proves it works)

Brings justice to the term "crash dive"

[ilyushin]

Jesada Technik Museum

Sutham Konwai has helped his boss at Chase Enterprise, Jesada Dejkulrit, amass a mind-boggling array of aircraft and land vehicles. The time is approaching to share it

Jesada Dejkulrit certainly knows how to spend his considerable fortune, but you wouldn’t exactly call his purchases “glamorous”. New this month in his private collection are an ageing Boeing 747-200 jumbo jet and a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar.

And soon he’ll be adding a Russian U-194 submarine to a warehouse already bulging with 400 classic cars, scooters and tricycles from Europe and Japan.

They’ve all seen better days, but as part of his splendid and vast assemblage of things that fly and race along roads, they’ve got a whole new life ahead of them.

Welcome to the Jesada Technik Museum, the only such facility of its kind in Thailand. The globetrotting gadget freak in charge owns Chase Enterprise (Siam) Co Ltd, a 30-year-old company that makes fire engines and other heavy-duty vehicles.

The Jesada Technik Museum in Nakhon Chaisri, in Nakhon Pathom province, has separate sections for the submarine, aircraft, motorcycles, taxis, little bubble cars, classic cars, motorised bicycles, military vehicles and just plain weird vehicles.

The main museum – with the Tristar, the submarine and the 400 cars – is to be relocated to a permanent site in Ayutthaya next year. The rest of the collection, including the just-purchased Jumbo, will be housed in a new Jesada Technik Museum near Nakhon Ratchasima airport.

Usually travelling with Jesada on his acquisition trips to Europe is his sidekick and Chase’s sales-and-procurement manager, Sutham Konwai.

While Jesada is checking on his new submarine in Poland, Sutham explains that the exhibits are more than valuable – they’re high in sentimental value to the museum’s founder.

“Jesada is a machine freak. He’s been collecting for 10 years and has wanted to open a museum for a long time. Having seen and visited several auto museums in Europe, Jesada was hoping that one day he would own a technik museum of his own.”

Sutham and Jesada travel to Europe primarily to clinch business deals, of course, but their passion for museums often gets the better of them. Sutham thinks the best are the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim, with its Concorde and Tupolev Tu-114, the Technik Museum Speyer, which has a Lufthansa 747-200 and Junker Ju-52, and the Deutsches Museum in Munich, with masterpieces of science and technology.

“In Munich we were truly amazed by the cross-section view of a 747, the real thing. Where else can you see such a thing?

“I saw throngs of fascinated schoolchildren at the museum. So we thought it would be a good idea to have a museum like that to inspire Thai children.”

Sutham recalls visiting the Story Automuseum in Hannover with Jesada and seeing Otto Kunnecke’s collection of 120 micro-cars, 100 motorcycles and scooters and tricycles.

“This place was an inspiration for opening the Jesada Technik Museum. We were in Paris and learned that there was a museum of bubble cars in Hannover. So we flew to Hannover and spent two hours in a taxi getting to the museum, and we had the cabbie wait for us for three hours while we toured the museum. It was worth the hassle, though!”

Jesada and Sutham ended up chasing down antique cars around Europe. The first was a red micro-car made by Messerschmidt, famed for its fighter aircraft. “We bought it at an auction,’’ says Sutham. Most of the vehicles were purchased at antique fairs in Germany – not too expensive because of their age, Sutham emphasises.

Among the more interesting pieces is a JD Flamo tricycle built with wood, since “all the iron was being used to make Nazi tanks”, Sutham says. There’s a BMW Isetta micro-car, a green “Bond Bug”, a British-made Trojan mini-car, a DMC with a “Back to the Future” fame and an eight-door limousine.

There are also two classic London Route Master buses, one bought on eBay for almost Bt1 million. The other from a junkyard for Bt700,000 and has been taken on a drive to Korat.

Having amassed a sizeable collection of cars, Jesada went for antique and ageing aircraft and helicopters being sold by private firms and government agencies, including the Royal Thai Air Force.

The Boeing 747-200 cost Bt2 million and the Lockheed Tristar a little more than a million, both purchased from Orient Thai Airlines.

“They cost so much because the aircraft’s aluminium has high value,’’ says Sutham.

Jesada hired Australian pilots to fly the Jumbo to Korat. The Tristar, now parked at Utapao airport in Sattahip, will be taken apart and transported by boat along the Chao Phya River to his Ayutthaya museum.

“One of our Russian-made helicopters belonged to the Cambodian armed forces, and it was flown in by a pilot who was seeking exile in Thailand,” says Sutham.

The 1,350-tonne, 2,000-horsepower, 75-metre-long “Whisky Class” U-194 submarine proved irresistible. “When we saw it on sale on the Net we decided to grab it. It’s always been Jesada’s dream to have a submarine in his museum.”

Previously owned by a Finnish businessman, who displayed it at the submarine museum in Hesingborg, Sweden, the U-194 is now being refurbished in Poland. It will be towed around the Cape of Good Hope to Thailand – a 100-day, ค1-million project.

After a stopover in Phuket, the submarine will go through the Malacca Strait before reaching the Gulf of Thailand, then up the Chao Phya to Ayutthaya in April.

“The sub itself costs nearly a million euros [bt46 million],” Sutham says, adding that Jesada had just turned down an offer from Warner Bros to buy the sub at twice that price.

“It’s taken us so long to get it to Thailand because it was very difficult to find a towing company. But we hope Thai children will enjoy having a tour of it.

“What makes our undertaking different, though, is our collection of bubble cars. When children see them, they’ll realise that sittin g in these cars, as opposed to a Rolls Royce, isn’t beyond their reach. It’s very important to inspire children.”

Source: The Nation

[Ricardo]

“In Munich we were truly amazed by the cross-section view of a 747, the real thing. Where else can you see such a thing?

Well you might try the aviation collection, at the Science Museum in London, for starters. They have a cross-section taken out of an old BA 747. And yes - it is amazing.

Must admit that a museum like this, in Thailand, would be great for taking the kids !

[HarryHacker]

...and here is their website

http://www.jesadatechnikmuseum.com/

[chownah]

I think Toxin is involved. It's part of his "relentless attacks" on the gov't.

Chownah

[Who, me ?]

There was an interesting article in the Bangkok Post a while ago about that museum. It is owned by some wealthy Thai and has all sorts of rare and vintage vehicles including a London double decker bus. They mentioned at the time he was going to buy this submarine. You could try a serch on Bangkok post but pretty sure if you went to Nakhon Pathom almost anyone could tell you where it is at. I have called the local TAT office in provnces to find out where something is.

Nakhon Pathom is only an hour drive West of BKK , very nice town hardly any Falang at all and has a very large famous Chedi temple there.

LL

Hey, there are some farang in Nakornpathom....I am here for more than 4 years already and a few more are here also....Most of them are teachers...Not me (and I'll be moving to Bangkok end of feb)

[lannarebirth]

You can buy a 747 that will fly for less than $60,000? Wow!

[chownah]

You can buy a 747 that will fly for less than $60,000? Wow!

my guess is its a typo and it should be 2 million us dollars and not baht....if it is flight worthy.

I just went out and looked on the net and found a place that had two 747 air frames (no engines and no avionics) for US$ 700,000 each...as is where is.

Edited February 7, 2007 by chownah

[lannarebirth]

You can buy a 747 that will fly for less than $60,000? Wow!

my guess is its a typo and it should be 2 million us dollars and not baht....if it is flight worthy.

Doh! There goes my guesthouse idea.

[Johpa]

And did the bell at Llyods of London ring, or was it a complete loss for this man?

[Scott]

So one day in the not too distant future this submarine can be docked at the new Airport, which is sinking, albiet, not quite as quickly as the sub!

[Phil Conners]

Thailand is full of nouveau-riches with more money than common sense.

[Johpa]

Jesada Technik Museum

......Welcome to the Jesada Technik Museum, the only such facility of its kind in Thailand. The globetrotting gadget freak in charge owns Chase Enterprise (Siam) Co Ltd, a 30-year-old company that makes fire engines and other heavy-duty vehicles.

Source: The Nation

This has been nagging at me since I read it yesteraday.

Just how much profit has this gentleman made selling fire fighting vehicles to the various branches of the Thai government. I wonder just how much he has paid in taxes, if even one baat?

[lannarebirth]

Jesada Technik Museum

......Welcome to the Jesada Technik Museum, the only such facility of its kind in Thailand. The globetrotting gadget freak in charge owns Chase Enterprise (Siam) Co Ltd, a 30-year-old company that makes fire engines and other heavy-duty vehicles.

Source: The Nation

This has been nagging at me since I read it yesteraday.

Just how much profit has this gentleman made selling fire fighting vehicles to the various branches of the Thai government. I wonder just how much he has paid in taxes, if even one baat?

I don't know about taxes, but I guarantee you he's paid a ton of kickbacks.

[Johpa]

Jesada Technik Museum

......Welcome to the Jesada Technik Museum, the only such facility of its kind in Thailand. The globetrotting gadget freak in charge owns Chase Enterprise (Siam) Co Ltd, a 30-year-old company that makes fire engines and other heavy-duty vehicles.

Source: The Nation

This has been nagging at me since I read it yesteraday.

Just how much profit has this gentleman made selling fire fighting vehicles to the various branches of the Thai government. I wonder just how much he has paid in taxes, if even one baat?

I don't know about taxes, but I guarantee you he's paid a ton of kickbacks.

Yes, but the kickbacks would have been included in the price of the vehicles, not one baat out of his pocket.