Sunken Finnish WWII era escort vessel “Uisko” has finally received a documentation dive.

One of the few still undocumented Finnish warships that sunk during WW2 is now documented and new information of the condition of the wreck came out. After thorough plan and co-operation with the Estonian traffic control for the Gulf of Finland, a documentation dive was made to Escort vessel Uisko. The wreck is a protected monument by the Estonian state and the diving operation was made under SubZone's activity license issued by Estonian Heritage Board. Uisko was laid in 1938 in Belgium and bought to Finnish Coast Guard in 1939 together with her sister ship Tursas. They were both serving the Finnish Navy from 1941. On 16th September 1943 Uisko and Tursas were positioned off Keri lighthouse listening with hydro acoustics devices to the possible movements of Soviet submarines. A Soviet bomber appeared thru low clouds and launched a torpedo that hit Uisko which sank in minutes. 19 sailors of the crew of 20 lost their lives. Tursas was able to avoid the attack. The war archives are describing that Uisko exploded and was completely destroyed. There is also description that the wreck is in two pieces. The outcome of the documentation dive shows that the wreck of Escort Ship Uisko is in one piece and fairly intact. The torpedo hit damage area is on starboard side, under the bridge. Although a trawl net is covering nearly the whole ship wreck, many details are clearly visible. The SubZone documentation team: Sami Paakkarinen Mikko Paasi Laura Tuominen Jenni Westerlund Immi Wallin and Markus Santasalo. Here are some frame caps of the making-of video (Mikko Paasi behind the camera). More to come after official report to Estonian Heritage Agency and Finnish Military Museum.