K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER
Peter Huchthausen CAPT USN (RET)

The Secret Story of the Soviet Nuclear Submarine

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Books

WASHINGTON – K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER, the official companion volume to the National Geographic Society's first major motion picture of the same name starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, tells the harrowing true story of n narrowly averted nuclear catastrophe aboard the Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-19. The film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and distributed by Paramount and Intermedia.

On July 4, 1961, the nuclear-powered ship was taking part in a military exercise in the North Atlantic, 1,500 rniles from its home port, 150 feet below the ocean surface, when a pipeline in a reactor's cooling system ruptured and the crew found itself facing a nuclear nightmare. In a race against time, heroic sailors, exposed to intense levels of radiation, worked desperately to improvise a coolant system, thereby averting a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster.

The toll for their efforts was devastating: Eight men died excruciating deaths from acute radiation poisoning within days of the accident, and the surviving crew faced long hospital stays for treatment of severe radiation sickness.

K19: THE WIDOWMAKER: The Secret Story of the Soviet Nuclear Submarine (National Geographic Books, ISBN 0-7922-6472-X, July 2002, $16), by Peter Huchthausen, is a tale of crisis, courage and cover-up that strips away 40 years of secrecy to reveal a Russian Navy whose worst enemy was itself. Huchthausen, a retired U.S. Navy captain, served as naval attaché in Moscow from 1987 to 1990.

”Peter Huchthausen knows the hidden history of the former Soviet Navy probably better than any other American – and most Russians,” said author Tom Clancy. Huchthausen presents a history of the Soviet's desperate race to keep up with American submarine technology, the many early submarine losses and a shocking glimpse of nuclear wreckage and lost atomic weapons still littering the ocean floor today. Woven throughout the text are passages from the outspoken memoir of Capt. Nikolai Zateyev, commander of K-19, who offers a gripping and unparalleled firsthand look at the early period of Soviet nuclear submarines and the underlying causes of many of the accidents that plagued the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. The book features rare archival photographs as well as movie stills from the feature film ”K-19: The Widowmaker.” Also included is an afterword by film director Kathryn Bigelow, who describes various aspects of making the movie and the trips she and the screenwriter made to Russia to interview surviving crew members. A gripping and dramatic account of one of the Cold War era's most terrifying accidents, this powerful volume combines authoritative history with the magic of moviemaking to give the reader the real background story to E-19. Huchthausen, who was technical adviser for the feature film ”K-19,” has written three previous books, including ”Hostile Waters” about a Soviet nuclear submarine accident in the Atlantic in 1986. He lives in Hiram, Maine.

Photos taken aboard Juliet Class Sub - Sept 2001
as Consultant to National Geographic Feature Films




Peter Huchthausen,
Harrison Ford, & Katherine Bigelow

Peter Huchthausen & Harrison Ford




     Covers for American, Thai, & UK English Versions





Nikolai Zateyev
as Captain First Rank in 1962

Courtesy Antonina Zateyev & Kathryn Bigelow


 Harrison Ford
(as Capt. Alexi Vostrikov,
the character based on Nikolai Zateyev)
defends his command of the troubled submarine mission.

George Kraychk/Intermedia/Paramount Pictures

Another view of disabled K-19
off the coast of
Newfounland after a
second major accident in 1972

Crown Copyright, Ministry of Defense, Royal Air Force photo.
   
Surviving K-19 crewmen,
suffering from exposure to radiation levels,
at Leningrads's Naval Hospital Number One

Courtesy Historial Museum of the Northern Fleet, Murmansk

In this scene from the movie K-19 crewmen
play a brisk game of soccer on the Arctic ice cap.

George Kraychyk/Intermedia/Paramount Pictures

Japanese, Spanish & German versions


K-19 Page       Peter Huchthausen's Home Page

National Geographic: K-19: The Widowmaker

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