This Cold War "Mining" Barge Was Really Built to Steal Soviet Subs

I recall reading this in grade school, a kids newspaper we got in class called "The Weekly Reader'

The ruse was that Hughes was developing a undersea mining operation, and it was so convincing that people actually lined up to invest in this venture. This was what was in 'The Weekly Reader'

I later found out what it was all about was the only reason this cover was blown. was because of a warehouse breaking that had the records of this.

Funny, I had read somewhere that they managed to grab the sub but lost it when it was almost secured. This suggests it was the opposite.

Fascinating. Is there any further information around about what they found when the sub was dismantled, other than the bodies? Were the sailors remains returned to the Soviets? Or is this still classified, being only 40 year old intelligence?

Jon.

There was a book written about this subject, which I read in the early 90's. I cannot remember the name of the book, but the "barge" was called Matilda, in classified documents, and the ship that searched for and secured the sub, was called the Glomar Challenger, or the Glomar Explorer (I'm rusty on the details), but a friend of mine worked on the commo for this program while it was running. I joined the Navy in 1973 (USNavalSecurityGroup) just before the program ran it's course, so I did not work the program at all.

According to the book, and all documentation I've been able to find since, an accident to the "claw" occurred early on, while the ship was first approaching the sub, and the claw was cracked along one of it's arms. Since the claw was large enough to cradle the entire length of the sub, and lift it from the ocean bottom, which was around 19,000 feet at that location, but the crack occurred about 1/3 of the way along the spine, the weight of the sub caused the claw to break, which resulted in the sub being improperly supported. The sub broke in pieces, but the bow, to about 1/2 the subs length, was acquired, along with several of the nuclear tipped weapons for which we were searching in the first place.

Later, when we went back to try to acquire the other part of the sub, the story had already been broken by the press, and the Russian fleet was waiting for us. As a result, we were unable to collect the rest. I presume it still rests there.

I doubt that any remains recovered by then were returnable to anyone, or anything, but the ocean itself.

For more details, and I'm pretty sure, an opportunity to purchase the book from Amazon, try Googling "Glomar Challenger", "Glomar Explorer", and, with either or both of those, "Mathilda". Note also that the funding for the entire program was put up by Howard Hughes, who commissioned the building of all the hardware, and retained ownership of it after the program had run it's course, so including his name along with the other search terms should narrow the search to the specifics of the story.

Fair amount of detail here

https://www.google.com/#q=%22glomar+explorer%22+%22glomar+challenger%22+%22Howard+Hughes%22&safe=off

I had to leave Mathilda out of the search, though. I may have gotten that name wrong. Hope this all helps.

Thanks for the links, micahdo2. I spent quite a bit of time reviewing them.

I wonder if they obtained any reasonable intelligence from the operation? That is the part that seems to be still classified. But the rest of the recovery is a fascinating description of heavy engineering where cost was no object.

Jon.

I sent the link to this conversation to my friend, and he indicated that the only thing gained, since the missiles and the sub were antiques, and the crypto and keying material for it were lost when the sub broke up ( we never got the rest of the sub) was good will from the Soviets when we sent them the video of the burial at sea of the 6 sailors found in the portion of the sub we collected.

Unfortunately, one of ours died of a ruptured appendix during the operation, so it was one of ours for six of theirs. My friend was on watch in our Crypto Comm center when he died, or he would not have known that detail, either, since it was never publicized.

According to my friend, Sherry Sonntag, in her book, Hide and Seek, provides the best account he's seen. And the barge was apparently code-named Jennifer (don't ask where I got Mathilda from. I have no idea, at this point. )

Hughes ship was the Glomar Explorer. The barge HMB-1 was mothballed at the Todd Shipyard in San Francisco, California until November 1982. At that time, the United States Navy towed the huge barge to a Lockheed Martin facility in Redwood City, California, where it became a floating drydock for the construction and sea trials of the Sea Shadow, an experimental stealth ship being tested by the Navy. Sea trials of the Sea Shadow continued until 1986. After several attempts to find the vessel a home at a museum, General Services Administration offered the HMB-1 and Sea Shadow for sale as scrap. The vessels were bought by the Bay Ship & Yacht Company of Alameda, California for US$2.5 million in June 2012. Under the terms of the sale Sea Shadow had to be scrapped.

The HMB-1 was refitted at Treasure Island for service as a covered drydock. The overhaul included new equipment to allow the dock to submerge and surface by pumping ballast water, rather than by the previous compressed air system. This enables the shipyard to more easily control waste byproducts, maximize quality control for painting, and avoid loss of productivity due to bad weather.^[6]

HMB-1 is currently moored at the Bay Ship facility on Main St. in Alameda, CA.

The Sea Shadow has been cut up and scrapped. [Wikipedia]

Blind Man's Bluff by Sontag.

Hunh?

That's the name of the book.

Yes. My friend sent me a correction of his own memories, which I came here to post, but you beat me to it.

No they only list part of it.... Also I beleive something happened to the grapple. The did return the bodies they did recover. I had seen it on a documentary.