Within an hour, the fire on the Sindhuratna had been put out, and officials from the navy towed the submarine away from the Sindhurakshak with the help of other boats.
Russian defence spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that two anti-submarine ships, Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov, had "easily identified the submarine 20km away using the standard onboard hydro-acoustics systems and data obtained from anti-submarine helicopters".
Then the submarine pulled away from them and disappeared beneath the surface.
Unbeknown to him, a South Korean warship was starting a barrage at an object it had believed was a North Korean submarine slipping away after blasting the Cheonan but was later determined to have been a flock of north-bound migrating birds.
The purpose of this deployment was to divert Allied anti-submarine forces away from the coastal waters of the United Kingdom.
Then, 50 North Korean submarines disappeared, reportedly away to war, and then turned up in their bases some hours later.
The crewmen, using a com puterized navigation system based on that used by Apollo astronauts, will maneuver to ward the disabled submarine and sweep away debris from her escape hatch with a long, mechanical arm.
Opposite the glitzy marina, which – despite the town's exclusive reputation – was lined with plenty of pleasant and reasonably priced bars and restaurants (I had borscht, pizza and ice-cream) was the reason for all that cold war secrecy: a former Soviet submarine base hidden away inside the hillside.
The attacks came from aircraft carriers and submarines nearly 1,000 miles away in the Arabian Sea and from a bomber base 8,500 miles away in the United States.
Two minutes and 15 seconds later -- as measured by nearby American intelligence vessels and a seismic station in Norway -- a huge blast, registering a magnitude of 3.5, blew away the submarine's torpedo room and its command post, in the first and second compartments at the vessel's fore end.
