
The Lockheed Sea Shadow and the Hughes Mining Barge - mercantile
http://aviationintel.com/inseparable-to-the-end-two-cold-war-treasures-may-face-the-scrappers-torch/
======
CalChris
The _Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1)_ was originally developed by the CIA to
salvage the Soviet submarine _K-129_ from the ocean floor.

It then had a second life 25 years later as the hanger for the _Sea Shadow_.
Then they were both put in mothballs in the Suisan Bay fleet. Someone broke in
and photographed it.

[http://scotthaefner.com/beyond/mothball-fleet-ghost-
ships/](http://scotthaefner.com/beyond/mothball-fleet-ghost-ships/)

The _Sea Shadow_ was sold for scrap to Bay Marine for something $2.5M. But Bay
Marine got to keep the HMB and that's what's on the Estuary.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185831/Declassified...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185831/Declassified-170million-
Cold-War-Stealth-boat-snapped-2-5million-condition-scrap-parts.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Mining_Barge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Mining_Barge)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Shadow_(IX-529)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Shadow_\(IX-529\))

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-129_(1960)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-129_\(1960\))

~~~
brandur
It's too bad the _Sea Shadow_ is gone, but I was pleasantly surprised by how
easy it was to go and see the _HMB-1_.

It's docked at Bay and Ship right next to the ferry terminal on Alameda.
Here's a picture I took of it [1].

If you're in the Bay Area, it's probably not worth making the trip out there
for just the ship, but it's neat to walk around the old naval base close to
there, and I'd recommend a stop off at Rock Wall Wine Company along Monarch
St. There's a spacious outdoor area with a very unique perspective of downtown
San Francisco.

[1] [https://drop.brandur.org/hmb-1.jpg](https://drop.brandur.org/hmb-1.jpg)

~~~
CalChris
Yeah, that's the Alameda Ferry Terminal. I said _Bay Marine_ and I should have
said _Bay Ship_ ; same parent company.

Anyways, this is a Google Maps satellite photo.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7912901,-122.2931087,173m/da...](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7912901,-122.2931087,173m/data=!3m1!1e3)

The HMB is now used as a floating dry dock which was its original purpose.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20131224162647/http://www.bay-
sh...](https://web.archive.org/web/20131224162647/http://www.bay-
ship.com/uploads/4/0/3/3/4033527/press_release_-_hmb1_08-01-2013.pdf)

I remember reading the _Sea Shadow_ itself went for $400,000 and yeah, you had
to break it. You pay $400,000 to ship break a 572 ton boat; at $.20/lb that
isn't gonna work. I suppose that only makes sense if you get the _HMB-1_ for a
decent price and you can use it. Apparently that was the case for Bay Ship.

------
atemerev
The CIA has invented an entire fake scientific field to cover this: manganese
nodules deep sea mining (it is actually not commercially sustainable). More
than that, they have posted hundreds of peer reviewed (and completely fake)
papers to convince Russians that it is a feasible idea, so they launched their
own deep sea mining programs (completely abandoned after the nature of the
operation leaked).

~~~
Boothroid
I remember reading about undersea manganese mining in an illustrated science
book when I was a kid! It even had pictures of the mining craft.

~~~
brandur
To be fair, it doesn't look like this was entirely fiction. Here's what Wiki
has to say on the subject [1]:

> Interest in the potential exploitation of polymetallic nodules generated a
> great deal of activity among prospective mining consortia in the 1960s and
> 1970s. Almost half a billion dollars was invested in identifying potential
> deposits and in research and development of technology for mining and
> processing nodules.

And in a few cases they actually succeeded in extracting some metals:

> In the late-seventies, two of the international joint ventures succeeded in
> collecting several hundred ton quantities of manganese nodules from the
> abyssal plains (18,000 feet, 5.5 km + depth) of the eastern equatorial
> Pacific Ocean. Significant quantities of nickel (the primary target) as well
> as copper and cobalt were subsequently extracted from this "ore" using both
> pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods.

A lot of R&D money was sunk into this before it even had a hope of
commercially viable (and it still isn't to this day), but it wasn't a hoax
either.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_nodule#Proposed_Mini...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_nodule#Proposed_Mining)

------
rl3
> _Time is almost up for the Sea Shadow and the Hughes Mining Barge. Sadly if
> a miracle does not come to pass immedietly these relics of American
> ingenuity will be turned into rebar and Pepsi cans very soon…_

Setting aside the fact it's a complete tragedy that no one has picked these
two vessels up as museum pieces, I wonder how radioactive those Pepsi cans
would be—considering the entire point of the operation was to raise a nuclear
submarine, carrying nuclear weapons—one that supposedly broke in half
according to the official story.

I'm sure contaminated areas (if any) were decontaminated, but perhaps there's
still trace amounts resident in the ship that might tell an interesting story.

~~~
rjsw
The barge wouldn't be radioactive, it was just used to get the recovery device
into the Glomar Explorer before it set out to recover the submarine.

------
jonathankoren
I had read that the Sea Shadow was actually too stealthy. Sure you're radar
couldn't see it, but it also left a boat shaped hole in the ocean.

When it was sold for scrap, it went really really cheap. Like $100,000 I was
tempted to put a bid on it until I learned I would be contractually obligated
to destroy it.

The Sas Shadow was sold for scrap.

------
finnh
We were just talking about this!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277274](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14277274)

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zeckalpha
(2012)

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gitpusher
Fascinating!

