What do a top-secret CIA mission and the Maryland bridge wreck have in common? Well, the same crane
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wh...12501c98&ei=23
These days a floating crane called the Chesapeake 1000 — nicknamed “Chessy” — has the grim task of hauling off shattered steel from last week's fatal bridge collapse in Baltimore.
It has taken on many jobs over the decades. But the crane's most notable operation, until last week, was helping the CIA retrieve part of a sunken Soviet submarine.
WHAT'S THE ORIGIN STORY?
In the early 1970s, the crane barge was called the Sun 800 for the number of tons it could lift. It helped to construct a specialized ship that raised a portion of the sub in 1974. Specifically, the crane hoisted into the ship heavy machinery that was vital to the Cold-War heist.
The equipment included a mechanical claw, tons of steel pipe and a heavy duty hydraulic system. The Soviet submarine was roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) below the surface of the Pacific.
The CIA wrote on its website that the ship “could conduct the entire recovery under water, away from the view of other ships, aircraft or spy satellites.” The specialized ship was called the Hughes Glomar Explorer, named after the billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes.
To save time, a Philadelphia-area shipyard built the vessel's heavy parts on the ground. The floating crane was needed to lift those assembled pieces into the new ship.
“The Sun 800 was built specifically to help us on the construction of the Hughes Glomar Explorer," said Gene Schorsch, who was then chief of hull design for Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.
WHAT WAS THE CIA MISSION?
The secret mission was called “Project Azorian.”
News stories in 1975 told of the mission. But Washington didn’t confirm the basic facts until 2010, when the CIA released a partially redacted report that lacked many of the juicy details.
“It's considered one of the most expensive intelligence operations of all time,” said M. Todd Bennett, a history professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, who wrote a 2022 book on the mission. ”And not only that, it’s certainly one of the most inventive or daring intelligence operations in U.S. history."
The sub, K-129, was lost northeast of Hawaii in 1968. After the Soviets abandoned their search, the U.S. found the vessel.
“To discover it, that's one thing,” Bennett said. “But to have the wherewithal to try to devise a way to recover that piece of hardware is really remarkable. It's been compared — and rightly so — to an underwater moonshot.”
The submarine was a potential wellspring of intelligence, from details on Soviet nuclear-weapons capabilities to military codes.
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Originally Posted by SilverBullet432
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