French submarine Minerve (S647)

Minerve (S647) was a French submarine, one of nine of the Daphné class. The relatively small submarine was an experimental missile-carrying submarine with a diesel engine. She had a maximum speed of 15 knots.

Service history
The submarine was laid down in May 1958 the Chantiers Dubigeon shipyard in Nantes, and launched on 31 May 1961. After a shakedown cruise to Londonderry, Bergen, and Gothenburg in November 1962, the submarine sailed from Cherbourg to Toulon, arriving on 22 December 1962. She was commissioned into the 1st Submarine Squadron on 10 June 1964. Minerve operated solely in the Mediterranean, and was refitted at Missiessy Quay, Toulon, in 1967.

Loss
On 27 January 1968 at 07:55 hrs, she was travelling just under the surface using her snorkel, roughly 25 nmi from her base in Toulon, when she advised an accompanying Breguet Atlantic aircraft that she would be at her berth in about an hour; 52 crew, including six officers, were on board. She was never heard from again. She was lost in waters between 1000 m and 2000 m deep.

Commander Philipe Bouillot recalled later telling Minerve's new captain Lieutenant André Fauve, he had spent 7,000 hours submerged over the four years he had been in command of her and never had a problem. The only factor known that could have caused her to sink was the weather, which was extremely bad at the time of her loss.

The French Navy promptly launched a search for the missing submarine mobilizing numerous ships, including the aircraft carrier FRENCH AIRCRAFT CARRIER Clemenceau and the submersible SP-350 Denise under the supervision of Jacques Cousteau, but found nothing, and the operation was called off on 2 February. However, the search for Minerve, under the name Operation Reminer continued into 1969 and utilized the submersible Archimède and the survey ship USNS Mizar (T-AGOR-11). To this day no trace of the vessel has been found.

Minerve was lost at about the same time as the INS Dakar (a few days apart), over 1450 mi away.