On 3/17/2018 12:18 AM, Bill wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:

I recently watched "Azorian" via Amazon Prime streaming. It's about
the CIA's program to raise the Soviet sub K-129 that sank off of Iceland
in 1974.

Talk about some serious engineering! Howard Hughes was recruited to
provide a cover story by "financing" the design and building
of the Huges Glomar Explorer as a sea bed mining ship. In reality the
CIA financed it all of course.

The bottom of the ship had two huge doors that slid open
allowing the deployment of a giant lift device with claws that would
submerge, held in place by pipes, to a depth of 16,500 feet where the
sub lay on the bottom.

The technical challenges of designing the systems involved were mind
boggling. Makes the challenge of going to the moon look like duck soup.

Great documentary for those with this kind of interest.



The Glomar was anchored with the mothball fleet in the Sacramento Delta for
years. Fished next to it a lot. Even from the outside was an
interesting ship. Especially when you read about the design. The tower
for the pipe were still on the ship. Laid down in storage.


A lot of the original equipment was removed when it was sold. According
to the documentary it was eventually sold and converted to an oil
research vessel or something.

The huge tower that held the piping which in turn held the claw device
was mounted on a gimbal using four gigantic custom made bearings. The
gimbal allowed the piping to stay straight when the ship rocked and
rolled due to wave action. Thrusters (along with main propulsion) kept
the ship in place however it was before GPS or satellite navigation.
They had three sensors on the ocean floor, each about a mile apart in a
triangular configuration to sense where the ship was positioned very
precisely.