When you want to know how life under the water.

I like to ride a boat, ship, ferry or any kind of water transportations. Fortunately, I also had ride of warship when in kindergarten at Surabaya. My kindergarten school was under navy foundation. When I won a competition, my present was to ride a warship from Surabaya to Madura, crossing the Madura Strait. Even I don’t have any picture of it, I still remember until now. I think it was one of my core memories.

Since that, I kind of obsessed with ship. While learning history, I later known about submarine. Their role to win the sea war. Sometimes I wonder how the life in the submarine. What they are doing while sailing under the sea. What they eat, how they sleep, how they survive under water, kind of that.  

Luckily, I lived in Surabaya. Surabaya has a submarine museum. It was literally submarine that made into a monument. It called Monkasel (Monumen Kapal Selam) Surabaya. It was opened since 2 October 1998.

When I first saw it, it was huge and heavy. How can this submarine survive under the water? How magnificent! Its height is 76.6 meters and weight 6.30 meters. We can enter inside it. Therefore, we can enjoy and imagine how the navy life when they were in the submarine.

There are several rooms inside, such as commander’s room, eating room, workspace, command center, food and battery storage, kitchen, diesel and engine terminal room, electric machine room, and torpedoes room. It was quite complete and comfortable.

Actually, Monkasel was KRI Pasopati 410 made in USSR at 1952. It joined with Indonesian Navy since 29 January 1962. There were some reasons why this ship had chosen to be a monument. Apart from being retired, it was also the largest, most complete submarine and has a long historical record for Indonesia.

While in the task force, KRI Pasopati 410 always supported large-scale operational activities, such as Trikora Operation. It played an important role to liberate West Irian at the Aru Sea.

Because of the size, it was not easy to move this ship on the location. The monument will be located in Jalan Pemuda, the heart of Surabaya. Consequently, this submarine was cut into 16 parts at PT. PAL. After being cut, the submarine parts were reassembled at the monument location.

Besides enjoying inside the submarine, we also can see documentary about the history of KRI Pasopati 410. There are also a swimming pool and live music. The location of this monument is beside Kalimas River which is one of the tourism spots in Surabaya. After visited the monument, you can walk away to Surabaya Mall beside this monument.

I think you should visit Monkasel while in Surabaya. Because this is the only submarine museum in Indonesia.

pic by google