Minerve 1968
Marker: recorded wreck position (Modern).
Key facts
| Name | Minerve | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1968 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Modern | derived from year |
| Ship type | attack submarine | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | France | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | French Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Depth | 300.0 m | Wikidata P4511 vertical depth |
| Sea / ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | France | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 29 km from land |
| Position | 42.8382, 5.7822 | Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0) |
About the wreck
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 while returning to her home port of Toulon in bad weather.
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 under unclear circumstances 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.
Diving & visiting
On 14 October 2018, the French newspaper Var-Matin reported that, on Hervé Fauve's initiative, eighteen of the families of the 52 sailors of the Minerve had sent an open letter to various elected representatives in the Toulon area to request that the search for Minerve's wreck be resumed. The submarine was the only missing Western submarine from the end of World War II not to have been found. After the publication of Var-Matin's report, Fauve succeeded in mobilising all the families of the crew, active and retired sailors, and the French media, to support the request.
On 5 February 2019, the Minister of the Armed Forces announced the resumption of the search, 50 years after it had been called off.
On the day of her discovery, 22 July 2019, Squadron Vice-Admiral Charles-Henri du Ché, responsible for the search, declared that the remains of the submarine would not be disturbed and would become a maritime sanctuary. A ceremony is to be held in the location where Minerve vanished with the relatives of the submariners in attendance.
Location
- Recorded position: 42.8382, 5.7822 (Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Mediterranean Sea
- Nearest coast: France
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article French submarine Minerve (S647) (revision 1380044384), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Relaunch of the search for the wreck”, “Memorial”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- U-303 1943 · 18 km
- U-967 1944 · 29 km
- U-466 1944 · 30 km
- U-410 1944 · 33 km
- U-421 1944 · 33 km
- U-969 1944 · 33 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off France · Mediterranean Sea · Modern