![]() Minerve in Bergen (Norway) in 1962
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History | |
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Name | Minerve |
Namesake | Minerva |
Builder | Chantiers Dubigeon, Nantes |
Laid down | May 1958 |
Launched | 31 May 1961 |
Commissioned | 10 June 1964 |
Homeport | Toulon |
Identification | S647 |
Fate | Lost with a crew of 52 on 27 January 1968 in the Gulf of Lion; wreckage discovered on 22 July 2019 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Daphné-class submarine |
Displacement | |
Length | 57.75 m (189 ft 6 in) |
Beam | 6.74 m (22 ft 1 in) |
Depth | 5.25 m (17 ft 3 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range | 10,000 nmi (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) surfaced |
Endurance | 30 days |
Test depth | 300 m (980 ft) |
Complement |
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Sensors and processing systems |
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Electronic warfare & decoys | ARUR 10B radar detector |
Armament |
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Minerve was a diesel–electric submarine in the French Navy, launched in 1961. The vessel was one of 11 of the Daphné class. In January 1968, Minerve was lost with all hands in bad weather while returning to her home port of Toulon.
Minerve sank two days after the submarine INS Dakar of the Israeli Navy disappeared in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Minerve was one of four submarines lost to unknown causes in 1968 along with the Soviet submarine K-129, the American USS Scorpion, and Israeli submarine INS Dakar. After more than 50 years missing, the location of the wreck was discovered in 2019, 45 kilometres (24 nmi; 28 mi) south of Toulon.[2]