Below, Atop, and Above the Sea

The Exhibit Hall at Tallinn's Seaplane Harbour Museum. (Yes, in the middle of the room, that is is a full-sized submarine.)

Hello again, Blogonauts!

Today was my last day exploring Tallinn. Someone asked about the weather I've experienced. Today it turned a bit chilly (45º F, winds 15-25 MPH), so I thought I'd head somewhere indoors... this time to visit the Seaplane Harbour Museum.

The complex at Seaplane Harbour is the largest component of Estonia's Maritime History Museum. And it is alone (with good reason) the most popular museum in Estonia. Arrayed inside this enormous repurposed airplane hangar are hundreds of artifacts, exhibits, and explanatory notes.

The layout gushes with ingenuity: On the bottom floor are objects that would be found beneath the sea's surface (e.g., a centuries-old shipwreck, sunken trash & treasure, torpedoes & mines, etc.). But when you ascend to the second floor, you find displays and items that you would find atop the sea, such as buoys, artillery, and a variety of boats (including iceboats fitted with runners, a racing boat, dugout canoes, and a pair of refugee boats that carried Estonians fleeing the Nazis & later the Soviets).

Then, when you look overhead, you see items that really belong in the air above the waters: tall masts (with rigging that agile youngsters can climb, with the help of a trusty guide), taller buoys with antennas thrust skyward, and suspended from the ceiling, an actual seaplane.

Buoys, torpedoes, and mines! Oh, my!

 

A racing boat, and behind it, an iceboat, fitted with runners

A refugee boat that was equipped with a motor.

 

But the elephant in the room (and never was there a less appropriate application of that metaphor) sits midway between the first and second floor: the submarine Lembit. 

This is no demo model. The Lembit saw combat in World War II, and played a role in sinking 7 Nazi vessels. When fully staffed, it could hold a crew up to 36 officers & crew, and it served in both the Estonian & Soviet navies.

The Submarine Lembit

So, why not take a look inside?! 

The interior is cramped, to be sure. And because the engines required oxygen to run, submarines of that era could only remain below the surface for 2-3 days at the most.

The periscope and steering wheel for the Lembit

Passing through that hatch, I think I understood what it's like to be a torpedo.

Torpedo tubes at the bow of the Lembit

Once outside the hangar I found even more retired military and coast guard vessels, including an icebreaker, the Suur Tõll.

The Suur Tõll Icebreaker

I climbed aboard and wandered around he Suur Tõll (including climbing up to the top of those observation decks. But the interior spaces were sealed up tight.

As I mentioned, today was my last day toddling around Tallinn. Hard as it may be to comprehend, these narratives have omitted a lot. But let me end this leg of the trip with a couple of additional photos:

The KGB Prisons

 

 

The first photo is the entrance to the KGB prisons. The Soviet era saw tens of thousands of Estonians arrested, tortured, executed, and exiled to Siberian labor camps. The sick joke was that these subterranean cells were the tallest building in Estonia, because once you went inside, you could already see Siberia. I toured these chambers as well as the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom. The people of Estonia have a strong sense of what they have endured, but they have an eye toward the future.

Second is simply their flag.

The Estonian Flag atop the Tall Hermann tower next to Estonia's Parliament Building

I won't go into the reasons why, but often I feel a bit embarrassed by how frequently people in the US fly the stars-&-stripes. In Tallinn, though, the Estonian flag is similarly everywhere. The photo above shows the blue, black, & white stripes of their flag flying atop the Tall Hermann Tower, next to the Parliament. Folks in Tallinn know that many flags have flown atop that tower, and when they see their own flag there, it means that instead of carrying out the wishes of a foreign power, they're creating their own future (admittedly, along with help from their international friends).

OK... That schmaltz needs a chaser. How about a photo of tonight's dinner?

Grilled Fish with potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and radicchio. (It was yummy!)

Tomorrow I'm catching the noon ferry to Helsinki, so there's more to come!

Blog to you later!

Larry