Soviet's K-19 Was Snakebit From Start

The misfortunes of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 could fit into some mariner's folk tales of bad luck at sea. Even during its construction, a series of freak accidents plagued the dockyard workers who were assigned to make the K-19 seaworthy.

In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union was rushing to catch up with American nuclear submarine development, and the K-19 was intended to be the first of its class. The submarine was equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles capable of delivering severe blows to the US coastline.

The project was of great importance as, in 1961 when the submarine made its first voyage, the Cold War was on the brink of becoming thermonuclear. The construction was progressed hastily, which led to ten deaths before the submarine was completed in the shipyard of Severodnivsk in the far north of the USSR.