The ''Hughes Mining Barge'', or ''HMB-1'', is a submersible

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

about 99 m (324 ft) long, 32 m (106 ft) wide, and more than 27 m (90 ft) tall. The ''HMB-1'' was originally developed as part of

Project Azorian Project Azorian (also called "Jennifer" by the press after its Classified information in the United States#Top Secret, Top Secret Security Collateral clearance, Compartment) was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sun ...

(more widely, but erroneously, known as "Project Jennifer"), the top-secret effort mounted by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

to salvage the wreckage of the Soviet submarine ''K-129'' from the ocean floor. The ''HMB-1'' was designed to allow the device that would be used to grasp and lift the submarine to be constructed inside the barge and out of sight, and to be installed in the ''

Glomar Explorer ''GSF Explorer'', formerly USNS ''Hughes Glomar Explorer'' (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian, the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division to recove ...

'' in secrecy. This was done by towing the ''HMB-1'', with the capture device inside, to a location near Catalina Island (off the coast of California), and then submerging it onto stabilizing piers that had been installed on the seafloor. The ''Glomar Explorer'' was then maneuvered over the ''HMB-1'', the retractable roof was opened, and the capture device lifted into the massive "moon pool" of the ship, all within clear sight of people on the beach. After the conclusion of Project Azorian, the ''HMB-1'' was mothballed at the

Todd Shipyard Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United S ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

until November 1982. At that time, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

towed the huge barge to a Lockheed Martin facility in

Redwood City Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a po ...

, where it became a floating

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

for the construction and

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s of the ''

Sea Shadow ''Sea Shadow'' (IX-529) was an experimental stealth ship built by Lockheed for the United States Navy to determine how a low radar profile might be achieved and to test high stability hull configurations that have been used in oceanographic s ...

'', an experimental stealth ship being tested by the Navy. Sea trials of the ''Sea Shadow'' continued until 1986.

Fate

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 Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for " tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda Island, but also spans Bay Farm Island and Coast Guard Island, as we ...

for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

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 ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

for service as a covered

. This enables the shipyard to more easily control waste byproducts, maximize quality control for painting, and avoid loss of productivity due to bad weather. 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. The barge is no longer capable of submerging completely. Like other floating drydocks, it takes on enough water to allow entry of a vessel, then pumps out ballast until the interior of the dock is above water. As of August 2013, ''HMB-1'' was moored at the Bay Ship & Yacht Company facility on Main St. in Alameda, CA. In March 2015, the helipad was removed from atop the dry dock.Bay Ship Rhumbline. "Fly Away Helipad" Spring 2015, Vol. 6, No. 2, pg 4.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Roy Varner and Wayne Collier "A Matter of Risk: The Incredible Inside Story of the CIA's Hughes Glomar Explorer Mission to Raise a Russian Submarine", 1978 * * {{cite book, last=Polmar, first=Norman, title=Project Azorian - The CIA and the Raising of the K-129, year=2010, publisher=Naval Institute Press, location=Annapolis MD, isbn=978-1-59114-690-2, pages=238, url=http://www.usni.org

External links

AZORIAN The Raising of the K-129 / 2009 - 2 Part TV Documentary / Michael White Films Vienna

"The Navy Has a Top-Secret Vessel It Wants to Put on Display"
by Barry Newman - ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' - February 24, 2009
Virtual tour inside HMB-1 and Sea Shadow, 2011, includes HMB-1 operating manual.
1974 ships K-129 submarine sinking accident Barges of the United States Navy