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The
Glomar Explorer
In
1968, a flurry of coded communications alerted the U.S. Navy
to the loss of a Soviet Golf-class submarine, an older diesel
vessel that had sunk in 17,000 feet of water about 750 miles
northwest of Hawaii. U.S. Intelligence reports soon revealed
that an explosion had occurred, probably while the sub was
at the surface, but that it was mostly intact - and that it
still carried nuclear missiles on board. A few years later
the wealthy eccentric Howard Hughes constructed the Glomar
Explorer, an enormous barge built for the ostensible purpose
of mining manganese nodules from the ocean floor. Although
manganese nodules are real, the mining venture was actually an elaborate
hoax.
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The
Glomar Explorer, built
to retrieve a Soviet Golf-class submarine that was lost in 1968.
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In
reality, the Glomar Explorer was built as part of an
audacious CIA effort to retrieve the Golf. Codenamed "Project
Jennifer," the plan was to use a giant claw dangling on the
end of a three-mile-long tether to grasp the submarine and
raise it into a "moon pool" - a large area open to the sea
- built inside the Glomar Explorer. The submarine would
then be searched for Soviet codebooks, communications gear,
and nuclear warheads.
The
retrieval, begun in 1974, did not go smoothly. Trouble began when the claw
(nicknamed "Clementine" by the crew) had been lowered almost within reach of
the wreck of the Golf. While tantalizingly close to the submarine, the operators lost control,
and the claw collided violently with the seabed. Inspection
by remote camera showed no visible damage to the claw assembly,
however, so the engineers decided to continue with the operation.
The claw was lowered the final few feet, and found purchase
around the hull of the wreck. The slow, methodical process
of bringing the Golf to the surface began, and the
success of the salvage effort was apparently in sight, despite the earlier
mistake.
Hours
later, when the submarine was about two miles below the surface,
disaster struck. The impact of Clementine with the ocean bottom
had seriously weakened the claw assembly. Three of the five
tines that carried the load in the claw suddenly broke off,
leaving most of the 5000-ton Golf unsupported. Unable to take
the strain, the submarine tore apart under its own weight,
most of it plunging back into the depths - but not before
spilling a missile from an open missile bay.
Tense
moments passed onboard the Glomar Explorer, as the
crew steeled themselves for the nuclear explosion that many
expected when the lost warhead smashed into the ocean floor.
The explosion never came. Only a small part of the forward
section of the submarine that remained in the grasp of the
claw could be brought to the surface. This section contained
little of interest to the CIA, but found among the wreckage
were the remains of six Soviet sailors. They were given a
solemn burial at sea by the crew of the Glomar Explorer,
the ceremony performed in Russian.
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