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 Glomar Explorer mothballed in Suisun Bay, California, in June 1993. (USGS - TerraServer) |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | USNS Glomar Explorer |
| Builder: | Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania |
| Launched: | 1 November 1972 |
| In service: | 1 July 1973 |
| Fate: | Leased (not SAP) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Drillship |
| Displacement: | 50,500 long tons (51,310 t) light |
| Length: | 619 ft (189 m) |
| Beam: | 116 ft (35 m) |
| Draft: | 46 ft (14 m) |
| Propulsion: | Diesel-electric 5 × Nordberg 16-cylinder diesel engines driving 4,160 V AC generators turning 6 × 2,200 hp (1.6 MW) DC shaft motors, twin shafts |
| Speed: | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Armament: | None |
USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) is a large ship currently being used as a deep-sea drilling platform. The vessel was built for a secret operation, "Project Jennifer", by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, K-129, which was lost in April 1968.[1][2]
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Construction
The Hughes Glomar Explorer (HGE), as the ship was called at the time, was built between 1973 and 1974, by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.,[3] at a cost in excess of $350 million. She set sail on 20 June 1974. Hughes told the media that the ship's purpose was to extract manganese nodules from the ocean floor. This marine geology cover story became surprisingly influential, spurring many others to examine the idea. But in sworn testimony in United States district court proceedings and in appearances before government agencies, Global Marine executives and others associated with the Hughes Glomar Explorer project unanimously maintained that the ship could not be used in any economically viable ocean mineral operation.
Project Jennifer
Since the K-129 had sunk in very deep water, a large ship was required for the recovery operation. However, such a vessel would easily be spotted by Soviet vessels, which might interfere with the operation. So an elaborate cover story was developed. The CIA contacted the businessman Howard Hughes, who agreed to assist.[4]
While the ship did recover a portion of the vessel, a mechanical failure in the grapple caused half the submarine to break off during recovery. This lost section is said to have held many of the more relished items, including the code book and nuclear missiles. It was subsequently reported that two nuclear-tipped torpedoes and some cryptographic machines were recovered, along with the bodies of six Soviet submariners, who were subsequently given a formal, filmed burial at sea.[5]
The operation became public in February 1975 when the Los Angeles Times published a story about "Project Jennifer", followed by news stories with additional details in other publications, including The New York Times.
After Project Jennifer - Mothballing
While everyone admired the ship's enormous lifting capacity, it seemed no one was much interested in operating the vessel because of her staggering cost. From March to June 1976, the General Services Administration (GSA) published advertisements inviting businesses to submit proposals for leasing the ship. By the end of four months, GSA had received a total of seven bids, including a $2.00 offer submitted by a Lincoln, Nebraska college student, and a $1.98 offer from a man who said he planned to seek a government contract to salvage the nuclear reactors of two United States submarines. The Lockheed Missile and Space Company submitted a 3 million dollar, two-year lease proposal contingent upon the company's ability to secure financing. But the GSA had already extended the bid deadline twice to allow Lockheed to find financial backers for its project without success and the agency concluded that there was no reason to believe Lockheed would find the funds in the near future.
Although the scientific community rallied to the defense of the Hughes Glomar Explorer, urging the president to maintain the ship as a national asset, no agency or department of the government wanted to assume the maintenance and operating cost. So in September 1976, the GSA turned the Hughes Glomar Explorer over to the Navy for mothballing, and in January 1977, after she was prepared for dry docking at a cost of more than two million dollars, the ship became part of the navy's Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet.
After Project Jennifer - Leasing
Then, in September 1978, a consortium called Ocean Minerals Company of Mountain View, California announced that it had leased the Hughes Glomar Explorer and that in November would begin testing a prototype deepsea mining system in the Pacific Ocean. The consortium included subsidiaries of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Royal Dutch Shell, and Boskalis Westminster Group NV of the Netherlands. Another partner, and the prime contractor, was the Lockheed Missile and Space Company.
In 1997, the ship was taken to Cascade General for modifications that converted her to a dynamically-positioned deep sea drilling ship, capable of drilling in waters of 7,500 feet (2,300 m) and, with some modification, up to 11,500 feet (3,500 m), which is 2,000 feet (610 m) deeper than any other existing rig. The conversion cost over $180 million and was completed during the first quarter of 1998.
The conversion of the vessel in 1997 was the start of a 30-year lease from the U.S. Navy to Global Marine Drilling. Global Marine merged with Santa Fe International Corporation in 2001 to become GlobalSantaFe Corporation, which merged with Transocean Inc. in November 2007 and operates the vessel as the GSF Explorer.
The GSF Explorer is currently on hire to BP Angola drilling exploration and appraisal wells in Block 31.
Cultural Impact
The cultural impact of the Glomar Explorer is indicated by its appearance in a number of books: The Ghost from the Grand Banks, a 1990 science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke; Shock Wave by Clive Cussler; and Charles Stross's novel, The Jennifer Morgue.
See also
- Not to be confused with the Glomar Challenger, "the first research vessel specifically designed in the late 1960s for the purpose of drilling into and taking core samples from the deep ocean floor."[6]
- Hughes Mining Barge
- Soviet submarine K-129 (Golf II)
References
- ^ Burleson, Clyde W. The Jennifer Project. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-89096-764-4.
- ^ PBS, "The Glomar Explorer" Scientific American Frontiers, Mysteries of the Deep: Raising Sunken Ships, page 2
- ^ Snieckus, Darius. "and another thing ... An offshore Hughes who". Offshore Engineer (reprint by Oilonline, 1 November 2001 ). Retrieved: 1 November 2008.
- ^ Phelan, James. "An Easy Burglary Led to the Disclosure of Hughes-C.I.A. Plan to Salvage Soviet Sub"(fee). New York Times 27 March 1975, p. 18.
- ^ Sontag, Sherry (1998). Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage. Harper. ISBN 0-06-103004-X.
- ^ Glomar Challenger (This Dynamic Earth, USGS
- Roger C. Dunham "Spy Sub - Top Secret Mission To The Bottom Of The Pacific"; Penguin Books, USA; New York, NY; 1996 ISBN 0-451-40797-0
- 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
External links
- Photo gallery of USNS Glomar Explorer at NavSource Naval History
- AZORIAN The Raising of the K-129 / 2009 - 2 Part TV Documentary / Michael White Films Vienna
- Transocean, Inc.
- New life as a Global Drilling
- Images of the ship
- Images of HMB-1 - The Hughes Mining Barge which held the recovery claw
- Project overview
- Overview of Project Jennifer
- DeLuca, Marshall and William Furlow, editors; "Steeped in history, Glomar Explorer finally returns to industry, Converted vessel set to drill in record water depth" Offshore magazine, Volume 58 Issue 3, March 1998
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