Submarine Vesikko in Helsinki, Finland
Vesikko, meaning "mink" in Finnish, has a history intertwined with significant 20th-century events. Following World War I, Germany, prohibited from having submarines by the Treaty of Versailles, created front companies for covert armament research. Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw, a Dutch-registered company, was one such entity. To conceal their involvement, German prototypes were built at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. Vesikko, codenamed CV 707, was constructed as a prototype between 1933 and 1936. Shortly before World War II, this submarine was sold to Finland and served in both the Winter War and the Continuation War against the Soviet Union. After World War II, the Treaty of Paris in 1947 forbade Finland from possessing a submarine fleet. Vesikko was decommissioned but, unlike other Finnish submarines, was not scrapped. It was restored in 1973 and transformed into a museum at Suomenlinna. Vesikko stands as the only surviving submarine from this era of Finnish naval history.
