TN naval officers bring home India’s first submarine

Four naval officers from Chennai were a part of the pioneering team that brought India’s first commissioned submarine, INS Kalvari (S23), all the way from Riga (in Latvia) to Vizag in 1967. Braving hostile countries and choppy seas, Commodore K.S. Subra-Manian, Surgeon Lt. Commander A. Abraham, Lt. P.K. Ramanathan and Lt. Ramesh (retired as a Vice Admiral) brought the submarine home after a harrowing journey that lasted for 79 days. 

Surgeon Commander Abraham vividly recalled the gruelling training spell in the frozen landscapes of Vladivostok and Leningrad in Russia, before the team set out to sail. “We were sent to Vladivostok but we were cut off from the city, on to an island. It was very difficult for us to go to the mainland. It was freezing cold and the food was quite bad. As far as I was concerned, since I was a doctor, I was sent to the Military Medical Academy in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). I trained there for a year before joining the others at Vladivostok. The commissioning of INS Kalvari S23 was done in 1967 and the first batch was selected from a pool of 14 officers and 120 sailors,” he recounted. 

Commodore Subra-Manian recalled the lack of proper facilities, during this period. “Food was a problem for us initially as the Russians had no idea of what we required. In fact, when we arrived at Vladivostok, weary and jet lagged after a 24-hour journey from Bombay via Delhi and Moscow across 9 time zones, our first meal after crossing over to the island which was to be our home for the next 18 months, was some boiled rice and boiled egg! There were a lot of minor difficulties, such as absence of bathing facilities in our residential complex. We had to walk to a bathing hut about 100 metres away every time for a bath - not an inviting prospect in winter when everything including the sea between the island and the mainland froze!” he reminisced.

The journey between Riga (in present day Latvia) to Vizag, India took 79 days, touching Le Havre (France), Conakry (West Africa), Casablanca (Morocco) and Las Palmas (Canary Islands) and Mauritius en route. Commodore Subra-Manian recalled that back then, it wasn’t the best of times for submarines. “We sailed to India at a time when there had been three recent submarine losses involving the entire crew. The US navy had lost a nuclear attack submarine in the Atlantic and the French and Israeli Navies lost a submarine each in the Mediterranean. Our voyage took 79 days from Riga in Latvia to Visakhapatnam including one stretch of 29 days from Guinea in West Africa to Mauritius round the Cape of Good Hope. We had to go through mountainous seas during this leg, and endure some of the worst storms I had gone through, worse than the Atlantic gales and monsoon in the Arabian Sea. The submarine being low in the water while on the surface was frequently completely underwater in the high seas even without diving! I had to have the personnel keeping watch on top in the conning tower lashed to the submarine to prevent their being swept overboard,” narrated the Commodore, who joined the then Royal Indian Navy in March 1949 at the age 20 as a cadet after graduating from the Presidency College, Madras (1944-48). 

However, Dr. Abraham said he was thrilled when the submarine docked in Vizag. “We had a huge reception. We felt highly elated on pioneering the sailing of the first submarine to India. But it lasted for a few hours. When we came to Vizag, we had to establish a base. We were the first crew not only to sail the submarine but also establish the submarine base INS Virbahu, in May 1971 with Commodore K. S. Subra Manian as its first commanding officer. Each of us had to take over each concerned department and build it up from scratch. I had the task of setting up the training mechanism for escape from a sunken submarine, a vital part of training for any submariner. I trained many submariners on this before I took the premature retirement in 1984,” he said. 

Dr. Abraham pointed out that it was only recently that he realised that 40 percent of the officers were from Tamil Nadu. “When I realised that four of us were from Tamil Nadu, we wanted to bring this out. We want the Tamil Nadu government to take the credit for this pioneering effort by the sons of her soil. We are not looking for any monetary benefit, only the recognition that this was achieved by us,” concluded Dr Abraham, who hopes to present and project the case to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu soon.

Surgeon Commander Abraham said, “Life in a submarine is pretty much like any other organisation. We have our breakfast and report ourselves for duty at 9 am in the morning. I would go to see my patients, wherever they slept. The Commanding Officer had a cabin, while I shared another cabin with the second in command. The rest of the sailors slept on bunks and sometimes, even on top of the torpedoes. After breakfast, each of us went ahead with our duties. I had to check the CO2 concentrations in each compartment as well as the equipment used during emergencies. Then, we get together for lunch. After lunch, it is back to our duty until dinner, after which we spend time in the common area that is also used as bunks for the officers to sleep.”

Commodore Subra-Manian fondly recalled the proud moment when INS Kalvari was officially commissioned. “The temperature on the commissioning day was minus 17 degrees Celsius. Despite this I decided that as the overcoats supplied by the Indian Navy to our sailors were of such shoddy material, the crew would turn out in their normal winter uniform to look smart on this most important day. We had a price to pay for this later as one sailor, after standing in this temperature for over 2 hours fainted after all the ceremony was over and had to be revived. It was a very proud moment for me as well as for all the officers and sailors of INS Kalvari when I read the invocation and the Commissioning Warrant appointing me in command on December 8, 1967. All of us were fully aware that we were making history as the Indian Navy acquired its third dimension. This commissioning day has since been celebrated as Submarine Day annually on December 8,” he said.