EML Lembit
Stern quarter view of EML Lembit, underway while in service. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Estonia | |
| Name | Lembit |
| Namesake | Lembitu |
| Ordered | 12 December 1934 |
| Builder | Vickers-Armstrongs |
| Laid down | 19 June 1935 |
| Launched | 7 July 1936 13:07 |
| Commissioned | 14 May 1937 |
| In service | 1937 - 1940 |
| Homeport | Tallinn |
| Motto | "Vääri oma nime" ("Be worthy of your name") |
| Captured | Soviet Union in 1940 |
| Soviet Union | |
| Name | Lembit |
| In service | 1940 - 1979 |
| Out of service | 1979 |
| Homeport | Tallinn, Leningrad |
| Nickname(s) | "Immortal submarine" |
| Honours & awards | Order of Red Banner (1945) |
| Captured | From Estonia in 1940 |
| Fate | Museum ship from 1979 - Estonian Maritime Museum, but still guarded by the Soviet Navy |
| Estonia | |
| Name | Lembit |
| Operator | Estonian Maritime Museum |
| Acquired | From the Soviet Navy, on 27 April 1992 |
| Recommissioned | (Honorary) "Estonian Navy vessel nr.1" as of 2 August 1994 |
| Decommissioned | 19 May 2011 |
| Homeport | Tallinn |
| Honours & awards | Estonian Navy vessel nr.1 (1994) |
| Fate | Pulled out of water on 21 May 2011, restored and now in a museum building. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Kalev-class submarine |
| Tonnage | 570 (in its current condition) |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 59.5 m (195 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 7.5 m (25 ft) 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 3.6 m (12 ft) 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in) |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed |
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| Test depth | 120 m (390 ft) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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EML Lembit is one of two Kalev-class mine-laying submarines built for the Republic of Estonia before World War II, and is now a museum ship in Tallinn. She was launched in 1936 at Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness, and served in the Estonian Navy and the Soviet Navy. Until she was hauled out on 21 May 2011, Lembit was the oldest submarine still afloat in the world. Her sister ship, Kalev, was sunk in October 1941. Lembit is named for Lembitu, an Estonian ruler who resisted the Livonian Crusades.