EPRON, russian: Экспедиция подводных работ особого назначения (ЭПРОН) "Special Expedition for Underwater Works" —Special-Purpose Underwater Rescue Party, was a government agency of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

to salvage valuable cargo and equipment from sunken ships and submarines.

History

EPRON was established on 17 December 1923 and was initially under the Joint State Political Directorate () at the

Council of People's Commissars The Councils of People's Commissars (SNK; russian: Совет народных комиссаров (СНК), ''Sovet narodnykh kommissarov''), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (Совнарком), were the highest executive authorities of ...

. Its first operation was treasure-hunting near

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

for the wreckage of HMS Prince, a steamship sunk by a storm off

Balaklava Balaklava ( uk, Балаклáва, russian: Балаклáва, crh, Balıqlava, ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklava Raion that used to be part of the Cri ...

in November 1854 when it was carrying gold from Britain to pay British troops fighting in the Crimea (GBP 200,000). The project team was financed, equipped, trained and managed by Japanese diving specialists, who had become highly experienced through salvaging warships of the

Russian Imperial Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a ...

sunk or scuttled during the 1904–1905

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. The wreckage was allegedly located but there were no reports of gold being found in the quantities that had been initially deemed. After that EPRON extended its operations to rescue and salvaging sunken ships, gradually absorbing other diving units (less experienced and/or worse equipped) and creating new ones. In 1929 EPRON became the sole body in the USSR responsible for all kinds of work under water - in marine operations, hydraulic and river engineering, mining, wreckage and derelict logging and utilizing, etc. In 1931 it was transferred from the OGPU as a department to the NKPS ( - "People's Commissariat (Ministry) of Transport"). In 1936 EPRON was subordinated to NKVT ( - "People's Commissariat (Ministry) of Sea and River Transport"); in 1939 - further to NKMF ( - "People's Commissariat (Ministry) of the Merchant Navy"). By 1941 EPRON had rescued 36 ships and raised 74 sunken ships with total weight of about 25,000 GRT.М.Ю. Сорокин�
В поисках затонувших кораблей – "In search of sunken ships" (ru)
«Природа» № 1, 2001 г. In 1941 naval rescue and salvage units were transferred to the Soviet Navy (still under the name EPRON); in 1942 it was renamed the

Emergency Rescue Service of the Navy An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

(''Аварийно-спасательная служба ВМФ''), which became the

Search and Emergency Rescue Service of the Navy Searching or search may refer to: Computing technology * Search algorithm, including keyword search ** :Search algorithms * Search and optimization for problem solving in artificial intelligence * Search engine technology, software for findin ...

(''поисково-спасательная служба ВМФ'') in 1979.

Notable commanders

Vladimir Yazykov Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

(1923-1924) *

Lev Zakharov-Meyer Lev may refer to: Common uses *Bulgarian lev, the currency of Bulgaria *an abbreviation for Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible and the Torah People and fictional characters *Lev (given name) * Lev (surname) Places *Lev, Azerbaijan, ...

(1923-1930) *

Photius Krylov Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...

(1932-1942)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Работа ЭПРОНа по подъему судов в северных морях

Defunct government agencies of Russia Science and technology in the Soviet Union Rescue agencies Russian Navy 1923 establishments in Russia 1942 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Soviet Navy