Vesikko Vesikko Zero Gravity Category="Museum ships"Category="Submarines of Finland"Category="Type II U-boats"[image] In World War II Vesikko was a Submarine of the Finnish Navy. It was designed by Dutch Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag (I.v.S) and built in 1933 by the Chrichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. It served as a direct prototype (named as CV-707) for German Class A II submarines. During the sailing-seasons 1933 and 1934 the German Navy carried out trials in the Achipelago of Turku. In 1936 Finnish Navy bought it and named it as Vesikko.

Vesikko was one of five submarines to serve the Finnish navy. The other four were the three "Vetehinen class" boats Vetehinen, Vesihiisi and Iku-Turso (named after Finnish mythology characters, see Kalevala) and the small Saukko (Finnish for Otter).

During World War II Vesikko patrolled the Gulf of Finland and in 1941 managed to torpedo one Soviet merchant vessel called Vyborg.

After war it has been decommissioned, as peace treaty obligations forbade the use of submarines in the military of Finland, until Soviet Union collapsed. Vesikko was lying as a wreck for years. It was eventually put for sale for anyone willing to buy it. Fortunately submarine veterans managed to rescue it and started repairing process. The submarine currently stands at the island fortress Suomenlinna and serves as a Museum in summers.

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