Description of the attraction
The monument to the crew of the Komsomolets steamer was erected in 1968 in Naryan-Mar on Saprygin Street, next to the building of the Seaport Administration. The monument was erected in honor of the tragedy that took place in the Barents Sea on August 16, 1942.
The tugboat "Komsomolets" was built in 1866 in Norway, its former name is "Sarpen". Its width was 6 m, side height - 2, 45 m, length - 26, 7 m, machinery power - 320 hp, carrying capacity 161 tons, developed speed up to 7 knots. He has been in Naryan-Mar since 1934. Since the beginning of the war, he was transferred to wartime regime, among other ships of the merchant fleet in the Northern Basin. Komsomolets provided transportation for the needs of the Northern Fleet and the 14th Army.
On July 29, 1942, the Komsomolets tug and the P-4 barge left Naryan-Mar as part of a rescue expedition led by Captain A. S. Kozlovsky in order to remove cargo from the ship "Vytegra", which suffered an accident. After reloading the cargo from the steamer, the caravan delivered them safely to Amderma. From there he went to the village of Khabarovo. He arrived there on 10 August. The steamboat Komiles, the tugboat Nord and the lighter Sh-500 joined the caravan in the village.
"Nord" towed "Komiles" (due to its malfunction) and the "Sh-500" lighter, which was loaded with coal, "Komsomolets" towed the barge P-4, on which there were 300 people, most of them prisoners of the "Norilstroy" camps. On August 16, 1942, the caravan moved towards Naryan-Mar. There were also women and children on the barge. The caravan had no weapons on board. The voyage was rather calm. Moving at a speed of 6 knots, the column was headed by "Komsomolets" with barge P-4. It was followed by "Nord".
At 7 a.m. on August 17, when the caravan was two miles from the northern coast of Matveyev Island, a German submarine U-209 surfaced nearby and opened artillery fire. The radio operator of the tugboat "Komsomolets" A. Kozhevina managed to report the attack. U-209 chose the P-4 barge as the first target. At 7 o'clock in the morning, she was all on fire, but kept afloat. The people on board jumped overboard to escape the fire. In total, there were about 300 people in the water. While the submarine was shooting at the barge, the Komsomolets tug tried to escape. But the maneuver was noticed and the ship came under fire. The tug caught fire and threw itself to the northern outskirts of Matveyev Island. Twice U-209 torpedoed the burning barge P-4, but to no avail. At 7 hours 20 minutes. the boat rushed in pursuit of the other ships of the caravan. By this time the tug "Nord" had already managed to take the lighter "Sh-500" and "Komiles" to Matveyev Island and anchored 800 m from the coast. The "Nord" itself, having rounded the island from the west, set off in the direction of Yugorskiy Shara. At 8 o'clock the submarine approached the ships standing near the island and sank the Komiles with artillery fire. His crew had to jump into the water and swim to the shore. Many succeeded because the distance was short. At 08:05 a torpedo was fired at the lighter from a distance of 300 m, but it did not hit the target. At 08 h 10 min. submariners again opened artillery fire. After a while, the lighter went under the water. At 08:31 the submarine fired a torpedo towards the P-4 barge and sent it to the bottom.
Information about an artillery attack by a German submarine on a Soviet tug caravan was received in the village of Khabarovo at about 09:20. The minesweepers set off to the area of the incident. They met the tug "Nord", whose captain described the situation. The ships moved towards Matveyev Island. When approaching the island, they took on board two people from a boat from a P-4 barge. According to the rescued, German submariners finished off those in the water with hand weapons. The rescuers did not dare to approach the remains of the burnt down Komsomolets because of the shallow depths. Of those who were on the ships of the caravan, 328 people died in artillery shelling and 305 people drowned. Among them there are 14 crew members of Komsomolets and P-4.
In 1944, the Komsomolets was removed from the shallows and towed to the Naryan-Mar port, where, after major repairs, it worked for some time.
The monument to the crew of the tug "Komsomolets" was created by the port engineers under the leadership of P. Ya. Khmelnitsky. The monument to the sailors is a pedestal in the form of a steamship cabin with an Admiralty anchor installed on it. A stainless steel plate with a commemorative inscription is attached vertically to the bottom of the pedestal.
