Loch Ness swim record bid to mark K-19 sub tragedy

Captain Oleg Adamov

AN attempt to set a world record for the fastest swim of Loch Ness could help mark the 50th anniversary of a Russian nuclear submarine accident.

Eight crew died on the ill-fated K-19 after a reactor failure on board in 1961 while on exercise in the North Atlantic near Greenland.

Capt Oleg Adamov, who later commanded the K-19 between 1997 and 2001, will be in Scotland next month for talks on the swim of the loch.

If it goes ahead as planned on July 10 this year, the record bid will involve Russian and UK submariners.

Martin Douglas, a Highlands-based former Royal Navy submariner, who has been in talks with Captain Adamov, said the swim would be from the southwest shores to Urquhart Castle, which is approximately 1.8 miles.

He said: "The team of submariners swim in waters in Russia. Loch Ness was chosen to mark the anniversary due to it’s iconic status and also the similarities in temperature between Loch Ness and the temperatures of the waters the crew are used to swimming in Russia. It will be a challenge though, due to it’s distance, lack of buoyancy compared to the sea and of course the temperature."

The story of the stricken boat was made into a film, K19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford. K-19 was Russia’s first nuclear-armed submarine, built in a hurry in 1960 as the Soviet Union strained to equal the nuclear capability of the US.