Saturday, November 12, 2016

An Estonian submarine called Lembit



The blurb for this short video on Youtube runs:
Before World War II, EML Lembit was one of the two submarines built by the British for the Republic of Estonia. 
The Estonians held the largest and most successful national fund-raising event in Estonian history at which they donated scrap metal in order to pay for the submarine. 
When the Soviet Union occupied Estonia during World War II, Lembit became part of the Soviet fleet.  
Years later, two veterans who used to serve on the Lembit found the submarine abandoned in a river. It is now on display in the Estonian Maritime Museum.
There's more about the EML Lembit on Wikipedia.

Lord Bonkers adds: If the people of Estonia were to collect scrap metal to pay for the restoration of our own Lembit Opik (who, for all we know, may be abandoned in a river somewhere), I think it would be a Terribly Kind gesture.

2 comments:

Frank Little said...

Did Professor Öpik name his son after the submarine? We should be told.

Max Atkinson said...

Quite so!