INS Dakar
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | INS Dakar | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | submarine | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Greece | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 96 km from land |
| Position | 34.1600, 26.2600 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
INS Dakar (Hebrew: אח"י דקר) was a diesel–electric submarine in the Israeli Navy. The vessel, a modified World War II British T-class submarine, had previously been HMS Totem of the Royal Navy. She was purchased by Israel from the Government of the United Kingdom in 1965 as part of a three T-class submarine deal.
After leaving the UK on her maiden journey as INS Dakar, the submarine and her entire 69-man crew were lost en route to Israel on 25 January 1968. Despite extensive searches over the course of three decades, her wreckage was not found until 1999, when it was located between the islands of Cyprus and Crete at a depth of approximately 3,000 m (9,800 ft). The submarine's conning tower was salvaged and is on display outside the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum in Haifa.
The exact cause of Dakar's sinking remains unknown. It was one of four submarine disappearances in 1968; the others were those of the French submarine Minerve, the Soviet submarine K-129, and the U.S. submarine USS Scorpion.
Diving & visiting
On 9 February 1969, more than a year after Dakar went missing, a fisherman found her stern emergency buoy marker washed up on the coast of Khan Yunis, a town southwest of Gaza. British T-class submarines had two such buoy markers, bow and stern, secured behind wooden doors in cages under the deck and attached to the submarine with metal cables 200 meters (660 ft) long.
Experts who examined the 65 cm (26 in) of cable attached to the buoy made several inaccurate determinations.
Location
- Recorded position: 34.1600, 26.2600 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Mediterranean Sea
- Nearest coast: Greece
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 INS Dakar (revision 1376009738), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Searches and discovery”; 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
- HMS Juno 55 km
- HMS Hermione 1942 · 95 km
- HMS Bonaventure 97 km
- HMS Lively 1942 · 102 km
- HMS Hereward 1941 · 131 km
- HMS Jackal 1942 · 170 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Greece · Mediterranean Sea