Alexander Marinesko " Contains information translated from the corresponding article in the Russian Wikipedia ; may be expanded " Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko ( , , " Aleksandr Ivanovich Marinesko " , " Alexander Marinesco " ; ) ( January 15 , 1913 - November 25 , 1963 ) was a Soviet naval officer and , during World War II , the captain of the S - 13 submarine , which sank the German ship " Wilhelm Gustloff " , with recent research showing that over 9 , 000 died when the ship sank . Early life . Born in Odessa , Marinesko was the son of a Romania n sailor , Ion Marinescu , and a Ukrainian woman . His father had fled to Russia after beating an officer and settled in Odessa , Russifying his name to Ivan and changing the last letter " u " of his surname to " o " . Alexander trained in the Soviet Merchant Navy and the Black Sea Fleet , and was later moved to a command position in the Baltic Fleet . He was promoted to lieutenant ( ensign ) in March 1936 and advanced to senior lieutenant ( sub - lieutenant ) in November 1938 . In the summer of 1939 he was appointed commander of the new submarine M - 96 . When it entered service in mid - 1940 , it was declared to be the best submarine of the Baltic Fleet . Marinesko was awarded a golden watch and promoted to captain lieutenant ( lieutenant ) in 1940 . Great Patriotic War . After the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941 , the high command of the Baltic Fleet decided that the M - 96 should be sent to the Caspian Sea to serve there as a training boat . But this could not be realized because of the German blockade of Leningrad . On 12 February 1942 a German artillery shell hit the M - 96 causing considerable damage . The repair required more than four months . Because of the long inactivity , the level of battle training of the crew was low . Marinesko began to find consolation in alcohol , and he was expelled as a candidate member of the Communist Party . During a patrol near the Finnish coast , on August 14 , 1942 Marinesko spotted the German heavy artillery barge ( Schwerer Artillerie - Träger ) SAT - 4 " Helena " . He launched a torpedo and later reported that he had observed the sinking of the barge . In 1946 , the barge was turned over to the Soviet Baltic Fleet as war prize and it was found that her displacement was not 7 , 000 BRT as claimed by Marinesko , but only 400 BRT . Then Marinesko exposed his submarine to real risk by prematurely returning without any warning to his base . Soviet patrol boats attacked M - 96 , and a tragedy was avoided by sheer luck . In October 1942 , M - 96 had to disembark a commando detachment on the coast of Narva Bay . Its task was to attack a German headquarters and capture an " Enigma " coding machine . Although only half of the unit returned , without the machine , Marinesko had performed his task successfully and was decorated with the Order of Lenin and promoted to captain third rank ( lieutenant - commander ) . He was again admitted as a candidate - member to the Communist Party . In the beginning of 1943 , Marinesko was appointed commander of the modernized submarine S - 13 . Of the 13 units of the type S ( Stalinets ) , series IX and IXbis , only this boat survived the war . Leaving the base in the Finnish town of Hanko in October 1944 , S - 13 took position near the Hela peninsula , where the main German communication lines passed . Marinesko soon spotted the small transport ship " Siegfried " ( 563 BRT ) and launched four torpedoes , which all failed . He surfaced and opened fire at the ship with his cannon . He reported 15 hits and that , as a result , the ship was sunk . He stated that the displacement of this ship was 6 , 000 BRT . In fact , the " Siegfried " was hit severely , but managed to reach the harbor of Danzig . " Wilhelm Gustloff " and " Steuben " . After spending the New Year ' s night 1945 in Hanko with a Swedish woman , owner of a restaurant , Marinesko disappeared for several days . It was proposed that he be court - martialed as a deserter , and this could be fatal for him . Moreover , fraternisation between Soviet citizens and foreigners was not allowed . But the commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral V . F . Tributs realized that in such case the S - 13 would not be operational for a long time . Therefore , Marinesko was sent on a new mission to prove his abilities . Marinesko left Hanko on January 11 , 1945 and took position near Kolberg on January 13 . In the next days his submarine was attacked several times by German torpedo boats . On January 30 , 1945 , the S - 13 attacked and sank the " Wilhelm Gustloff " . The " Wilhelm Gustloff " was evacuating civilians and military personnel . Of the nearly 10 , 000 people on board fleeing the advancing Soviet army on the Eastern Front , there were between 5 , 400 and 9 , 400 casualties in the sinking of the " Wilhelm Gustloff " , making it the single worst maritime disaster in history . The vast majority of both legal and military opinion consider this a tragedy of war . According to the internationally accepted rules of war , the ship was a legitimate target , a fact the Kriegsmarine was aware of . Days later , on February 10 , Marinesko sank a second German ship with two torpedoes , the " Steuben " , this time carrying mostly military personnel , with an estimated total number of 4 , 267 casualties . Marinesko had maneuvered submerged for four hours , following the enemy by sonar . He was convinced that the target was the light cruiser " Emden " . Marinesko thus became the most successful Soviet submarine commander in terms of gross register tonnage ( GRT ) sunk , with 42 , 000 GRT to his name . However , Marinesko was not awarded with the " Hero of the Soviet Union " title . His commanders refused to trust reports regarding the scale of the hits ; in addition , he was deemed a controversial person , " not suitable to be a hero " . Instead , after the hits were confirmed , he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner . Marinesko felt personally insulted , and when staff officers came to present him the order on his submarine , he gave the order to submerge her . During his next mission from April 20 to May 13 Marinesko did not conduct a single attack , although he was sent to an area with intensive enemy ship traffic . This mission was evaluated as unsatisfactory . According to the Brigade Commander Submarine Captain 1st Rank Kournikov , Marinesco " had many occasions to detect enemy transports and convoys , but by improper maneuvering and hesitation to approach for attack could not . . . - command submarine in position unsatisfactory . The commander of the submarine did not try to seek out and attack the enemy . . . As a result of inactive operations commander submarine " S - 13 " did not fulfill his mission . . . " . Postwar . On May 31 , the battalion commander of the submarine high command submitted a report , which indicated that the " commander of the submarine spends all the time drinking , is not engaged in official duties , and his continued presence in the post is inappropriate . " On September 14 , 1945 , order 01979 was issued by Commissar of the Navy N . G . Kuznetsov , which stated : " For neglect of duty , regular heavy drinking and domestic immorality , the Commander of the Red Submarine S - 13 , Red Submarine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet , Captain 3rd Rank Marinesco , Alexander Ivanovich , to be dismissed , downgraded in military rank to lieutenant and placed at the disposal of the military council of the same fleet . " From 18 October 1945 to 20 November 1945 , Lieutenant Marinesco was the commander of a minesweeper T - 34 , 2nd Division minesweepers , 1st Red Banner Brigade , trawling Baltic Fleet ( Tallinn Maritime defensive area ) . On November 20 , 1945 , by order of the People ' s Commissar of the Navy , order number 02521 , Lieutenant Marinesco was transferred to the reserve and retired . From 1946 - 1949 , Marinesco was a senior mate on ships of the Baltic State Trading Company . In 1949 , he was appointed the deputy director of the Leningrad Institute of Blood Transfusion . In 1949 , he was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of squandering socialist property and imprisoned from 1949 - 1951 in Busan . In 1951 - 1953 he worked as a surveyor with the Onega - Ladoga expedition , and in 1953 led a group of the supply department at the Leningrad plant " Maison " . Death . In 1960 , Marinesco , by then very ill , was restored to his wartime rank of captain third rank and granted a full pension . He died in Leningrad after a long and serious illness on November 25 , 1963 , and was buried at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery in St . Petersburg . Legacy . Marinesko was awarded the title " Hero of the Soviet Union " posthumously , in May 1990 , on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the victory in Europe . At about the same time , the Ulitsa Stroitelei ( Builders ' Street ) in St . Petersburg was renamed in his honor to Ulitsa Marinesko , located in Kirovskiy District , connecting Avtovskaya and Zaitseva streets . The Submarine Museum in St . Petersburg was named after him , and monuments dedicated to him were erected in Kaliningrad , Kronstadt , and Odessa . He is one of the more prominent characters in the Günter Grass ' novel " Crabwalk " ( 2002 ) , which describes in detail the sinking of the " Wilhelm Gustloff " .