Navy diver Kevin Eppleman has his helmet placed by his tender, Jesse Kolek, before going underwater into the submarine. The vessel’s future as a museum is uncertain because of the rust and growth inside.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — Juliett 484 was once a movie star, captained by Harrison Ford in an action film. Before that, it was a feared piece of the Soviet nuclear arsenal and a large player in any doomsday scenario. Even in its dotage, as a museum boat in Providence harbor, it was a destination for tour groups and military buffs.

Those were better days.

Now, Juliett 484, a Soviet-era ballistic-missile submarine, is still stuck in the mud on the bottom of Providence harbor, flooded and rusting inside, and home to plants, crabs, and the few fish hardy enough to live in Providence’s murky waters. The sub sank in April 2007 in a severe storm, and now rests on its side in 35 feet of water just off Collier Point Park.

With the museum that operates the submarine lacking the cash to raise it, the sub might have stayed there forever had the military not taken an interest in refloating the submarine as a training exercise.

Next week, a team of Army and Navy salvage divers will pull the sunken Juliett 484 upright using heavy machinery. Once the sub is standing straight, they expect to raise it out of the water, probably on July 15.

While it’s a great training exercise for the military’s salvage divers, they may be among the last people who will ever set foot inside the Russian sub; its days as a museum boat are likely over, thanks to the rust and growth inside. They won’t know for sure until the submarine is refloated.

“If it’s in really bad shape, we have to be realistic, it’s been underwater for a year,” said Frank Lennon, president of the USS Saratoga Foundation, which operates the museum.

There’s still a chance the submarine could be restored, but that would likely be too expensive for the foundation. It’s possible that it could be beached somewhere, or that the military could have a hand in restoring it, but it’s equally likely it could end up as scrap, or sunken again to serve as an underwater reef.

One thing is certain: the Russian sub museum at Collier Point Park is a thing of the past. “That is not an option,” Lennon said.

The Army and Navy dive teams arrived from Georgia and Virginia late last month and early this month, as did LCU 1647, their floating base of dive operations.

As strange as it may sound at first mention, a Russian sub sunk in shallow water in the port of an American city is an ideal training opportunity for salvage teams.

Refloating the submarine gives the divers a chance to practice skills that could be used in the event that a terrorist blocks an American port, or as part of goodwill efforts to clear a foreign port of ships blocking the channel, said Cmdr. Dan Shultz, commanding officer of Navy Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2.

Military dive teams first came to Providence last fall, to prepare the site. Shultz would not put a dollar figure on the full operation, but the three-week phase in the fall cost more than $1 million, and this stage is expected to run for nearly two months. The 77 military personnel on site are staying in Providence hotels.

Divers then spent the spring months watching video and memorizing the layout of the submarine. Inside the sub, they can barely see a foot in front of them, Chief Warrant Officer Dale Kasztelan said, so they need to have a map of the sub in their heads.

Yesterday, divers slipped from LCU 1647 and into the harbor, trailing red and green air lines. They ventured inside the submarine, placing pumps that will be used to pump out the water.

Before the sub can be raised, it must be pulled upright. At the moment, it rests at a 48-degree angle, with its periscope pointing toward East Providence.

Last fall, the military tried to pull the submarine upright using four of the hydraulic motors, but it wasn’t enough. Now, they have attached two more, and expect that six will do the job next week.

Once the submarine is standing up straight, divers will place large balloons alongside to keep it steady.

Divers will then tunnel out cavities underneath the submarine and insert inflatable pontoons, called “belly bands,” below the sub.

When filled with air, the belly bands’ buoyancy will push the submarine toward the surface. At the same time, the pumps will activate and drain the water from the boat, theoretically pushing the submarine to the surface.

Juliett 484 was commissioned in the Soviet Union in 1965 and served in the Soviet Baltic and Northern fleets until its decommissioning in 1994. It was then sold and moved to Helsinki, Finland, to become a restaurant.

When that venture failed, it was sold to a group in St. Petersburg, Fla., where it became a museum. In 2001, the submarine was used in the filming of the Cold War thriller K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford. It opened as a museum in 2002.

The Russian sub sunk in Rhode Island waters has since become something of an international curiosity. Russian and American television have done nationwide segments on the stricken submarine, and former crew members have sent e-mails and letters from all over the former Soviet Union.

dbarbari@projo.com