WEBVTT - Selects: Project Azorian: The CIA's Super 70s Mission To Steal A Sunken Soviet Sub 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:05.439 AHOI everyone. For this week's select I've chosen our episode 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:10.080 on Project Azorean, one of the coolest, most bonkers cold 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.480 bar capers the CIA ever attempted. And I don't have 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:16.360 to tell you the CIA did some bonkers stuff during 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.120 the Cold War. So sit back, pull up your favorite 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.280 volume on naval history, and use it to clench onto 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.160 while you're driven to thrills by this episode of Stuffy 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:32.000 Should Know. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:42.440 of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:47.200 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. There's our ghosts podcaster producer. 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:55.560 Who's invisible Jerry's past? Yeah, actually the ghost of Jerry's present. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.680 Jerry's not dead, everybody. No, that just sounded weird, it, 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.720 did it. We're keeping Jerry around. Yes, she just out 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.120 this week. Yeah, there you go. So it's just us, Chuck, 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.320 just a couple of boys batching it, just some good 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:15.320 old boys, never meaning no harm. No, something something been 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:17.480 in trouble with the loss. It's the day we were born. 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.280 I don't think there was something something before then? Is 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:26.120 there something something, something been in trouble? Yeah, right now, 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.000 I don't know, we'll go we'll look it up. You know. 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:31.759 It's funny. There's a great and we might have talked 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.680 about this years ago, but there's a great website called 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.399 Atlanta time Machine where you can go back and look 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.280 at old pictures of Atlanta and compare them to new 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.640 pictures and all that stuff. And they have some movie 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:46.560 specific pictures now. And they have the Dukes of Hazard 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:51.960 Pilot shoot photos, which was they eventually moved it out 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.000 in the country, but like most of the Dukes of 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.280 Hazard Pilot, all those car chases were in like midtown Atlanta. 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.920 Really isn't that crazy. But it was the original Bow 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.160 and Luke. Wow, who was the Who's sang the theme song? 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.640 Was it? Walk Toosh wayal And Jennings? Wasn't he the narrator? 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:09.680 It was whyal And Jennings? What was that first thing 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.560 he said? Walk toosh What does that mean? That's his nickname? Really, 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.360 walk Toosh Wayalen Jennings. I never heard that? Wow, it 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.640 is I love Wayale Jennings. Yeah, he's great. Apparently he 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:26.200 and Johnny Cash were roommates and highwaymen back well way 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.079 back in the day. Yeah, and both of them were 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.480 on drugs. But they didn't. Other people didn't know that. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.600 So they both used to like be on drugs but 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:39.240 not tell each other about it. Really, And I guess 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:41.760 it came out later that they were like, you were 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.160 on drugs, said so was I wods like I used 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.520 to keep on drugs in the air conditioner and Johnny 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.440 Cash is like, that's why the air condisher never worked 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:50.000 and Whyalen and Jones was like, I used to keep 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.239 mining in the TV and Johnny Cash is or whoever was, Yeah, 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.280 their TV never worked, in their AC never worked because 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.320 that's where they stashed their drugs without the other one 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.400 knowing it. Why what are the drugs due to the 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.080 TV and the air conditioner? I got them pretty wasted? 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.400 What a weird start. Yeah, it is a little weird start, 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.120 especially because while we're talking about has nothing to do 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.200 with drugs, Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings or air conditioners, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.040 no TV really, No, it has to do with the 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:25.600 CIA yep, submarines yep, the USSR YEA cold war yep, 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.160 and Howard Hughes, Yeah, among other things been hidden with Kissinger. 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:38.360 Are you kissing him to his interesting? He's still alive too. 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.840 Maybe you'll hear this. I've never seen you hiss before. 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.840 I know. It's kind of threatening, is it, Yeah, because 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.440 I do have like a really sharp canine thing. Yeah, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.640 you should. You should totally hiss more often. I should, 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.520 and I should shark in these things. I should file 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.600 them down. Oh people do that, I know, but surely 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.840 that has to hurt, right to file them down? Yeah? No, 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.880 how does it? Don't you have nerved No, they don't 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.560 hit the nerves, They just Oh, I guess you're right. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.840 I might do that. In the meantime, let's talk about something. Well, 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.160 let's let's go back to the beginning. Okay, okay, it's 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.640 nineteen sixty eight. I'm not exactly sure when, because look 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.719 the first part of my page ripped. Does it say 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.440 win in nineteen sixty eight? It does? You want to guess? 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.520 I feel like I'm holding the keys. May of nineteen 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.000 sixty eight, close March. It was pre summer of barely 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.960 Oh yeah, everybody's just getting started. It was the summer 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.599 of four play. Yeah, everyone's getting looped up, right, So 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.120 it is gross. So March of nineteen sixty eight in 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:45.440 the northwestern Pacific, as far as the United States is concerned, 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.640 which should be between say Hawaii and some far out 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.880 islands in Alaska and whatever else is out there. There's 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.159 not a lot out there. Yeah, apparently Hawaii is the 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.440 most remote island chain in the war world. Did you 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.000 know that. No, there's no island chain that's further away 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.880 from other land than Hawaii, even like when you look 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.560 at the globe those teeny tiny islands, uh huh from 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.839 what I understand. All right, so say Hawaiians at least. Yeah. Anyway, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.200 basically out in the middle of nowhere in the northwest Pacific, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.520 there was a Soviet sub It was a Golf two. 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.440 Golf two Soviet submarine. Yeah, they called it the cabri 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.800 Lay for a little while, but but that's Those were 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.000 the subs with the rag top. Yeah, those didn't work out. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.840 The this Golf two sub was called the K one 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.080 twenty nine. Surely it had an actual name, right, No, 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.839 I think they called him the K whatever. All right, Well, 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.880 the K one twenty nine was on a routine patrol mission. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.800 These are the Soviets they were glib about. You know, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.880 let's call this one the Hannah Montana. Yeah, exactly right. 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.919 So it was just the K one twenty nine all business, 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.800 which actually is kind of reassuring because it was a 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.560 nuclear submarine. Sure, it had not only a nuclear missile, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.520 like a nuclear missile you could come up to the 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:12.120 surface and shoot on to say, the United States. It 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.000 also had nuclear torpedoes, which I had no idea where 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.880 a thing, oh, really a nuclear torpedo. It's kind of 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.600 overkilled them to think. No, not if you're underwater and 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.320 you want to shoot a nuclear bombit somebody, Well, okay, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.120 then that really fits the bill. Well, it turns out 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:33.760 that some of these nuclear tip torpedoes detonated, and there 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.720 wasn't a full nuclear detonation obviously, but it's obvious, but 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.039 it was enough to blow a hole in the submarine, 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.760 and I think kickoffs some other detonations in some of 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:47.000 the other nuclear torpedoes. And the upshot all this was 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.880 that the entire ninety eight person crew and the Soviet 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.799 submarine in the middle of the Cold War in nineteen 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.880 sixty eight, sunk about sixteen hundred miles or fifteen hundred 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:03.320 miles north west of and hit the bottom at sixteen 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.719 thousand feet more than three miles down. Yes, and so 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:12.560 kicks off the story of Project as Orean and the 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.320 Glomar Explorer. Yeah, so what happens, of course, is the 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.800 Soviets go looking for this thing. They spend a couple 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:24.440 of months, pretty massive search, couldn't find it. The US 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.640 is kind of laughing and saying, they haven't found their 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.320 own sub yet. Maybe we should go out there and 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.240 take a look, because we could probably get some intel, 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:38.120 maybe salvage a nuclear warhead for ourselves, spray paint a 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.720 smiley face that says something like right back at you, 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.520 it's a good one, and then throw it their way. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:49.480 And in nineteen sixty eight, August of nineteen sixty eight, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.720 just you know, quite a few months later, they actually 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.640 found it. The United States of America located this thing. Yeah, 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.240 so they they this is the official story. Here's the 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.080 thing that I figured up from researching this story. You 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:03.480 can also go ahead and assume that all of this 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.040 is fabricated and that there's actually other stuff that was 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.160 actually going on. Yeah, this is the story that's been 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.960 handed like this. Actually maybe the story that covers up 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:18.440 an assassination in Brazil or something like that. That could 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.040 be the whole reason this story exists. Because we're talking 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.960 about a covert operation in the sixties and seventies by 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.240 the CIA. Okay, so just take everything with the grain 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.200 of salt. But the story as it was reported and 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.760 as far as the CIA has ever admitted, was that 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.080 the Air Force and the Navy both had listening devices 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.600 throughout the Pacific, and somebody at some point said, well, 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:42.440 wait a minute, why don't we get these two together 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.920 and see if there's any data, any sounds that were 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.160 picked up from the sub exploding, and see if we 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.360 can pinpoint it basically triangulate with only two data points, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.320 which is I guess straight line gulate, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.240 that is what it would be called. But suppose they 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:02.600 did it and they found where the sub was, and 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.040 like you said, the US was laughing because they were 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.600 watching the Soviets look in all the wrong places. We're 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:10.600 near it. And then after a couple of months, the 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.400 Soviets called off the search. And it was quite obvious 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.680 to the Americans that the Soviets had no idea where 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.760 the sub was, which made us think, maybe we should 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.600 check this thing out. Maybe we can go get it. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.679 Yeah they so we have two choices. We can call 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:28.680 them and let them know where it is, or we 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:30.560 can go get it ourselves, and this is the height 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.880 of the Cold War. Yeah, So they weren't about to 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.840 go with choice one. No, so option two came upon 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.640 the table and we got our own sub called the Halibits. 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:43.559 We had fun names. The Halibit dropped a camera down 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.280 there on a sled and took a bunch of pictures 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.400 of this thing. Verified it's down there, it's intact. We 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:52.280 don't know for sure if we can go get it, 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.240 but we should try because if we can get this thing, 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.600 not only do we have potentially information on how these 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:04.440 warheads are being built by them, but we might also 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.680 be able to bust their codes with this cryptographic equipment 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.400 they have down there. And so let's launch a project. 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:14.240 And we love naming things, so let's name it Project Azorian. Yeah. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.640 I guess that's the name of a person from the Azores. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.439 Maybe maybe no idea where they'd come up with these names, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.120 God love them, who knows, But Project as Orion was 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:29.560 the name of this this idea to go see if 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:31.640 we can get this sub right, yeah, which means, of 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:33.960 course we're not going to go out there next week 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.600 and start looking like there's a long process that has 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.440 to be undertaken before we can even figure out if 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.760 we can do this right. So they actually did get 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.959 together like a working group, a top secret working group 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:50.680 of engineers and nautical engineers and any kind of engineer 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.680 you can think of, and said, how would you do this? 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:59.680 It was a submarine, a twenty five hundred ton submarine 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.360 three hundred feet long. That's a thing in and of itself. 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:06.360 It's a big sub like that'd be hard to pick 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.839 up off land, sure, but it's not on land. It's underwater. 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.960 It's sixteen thousand, five hundred feet under the surface of 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.640 the Pacific Ocean in the middle of nowhere about is 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.360 in the middle of nowhere as you can get. And 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.640 how could we do this? How could we possibly pick 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.559 this up? And wait, wait, wait before you answer, you engineers, 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.920 the Soviets can have no idea what we're doing, because 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.440 they will probably think any ship that they thought was 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.000 going after this, I love this stuff more than most 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:42.959 stuff in the world. Yeah. Like, when there's this incredibly challenging, 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:48.400 almost insurmountical, insurmountable task and people get a lot of 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.120 smart people together and say, let's start brainstorming on how 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.240 if this is even possible? Right, I just think it's 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.640 really cool that and I bet these people, the engineers 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.680 are like, oh my god, this is a dream to 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.200 come up and try and solve this problem. Plus the 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.840 CIA said that they are holding my family hostage, so 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:10.040 I better get to work. So they decided, here's what 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.480 the only way we can try this is by doing this. 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:18.120 It's gonna involve three large vessels. One is a recovery 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.320 ship that basically has a chamber with the bottom that 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.760 could open and close like that ship in the Abyss. Yeah, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.680 a moon pool. In fact that James Cameron totally glow 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.400 marred this totally for his own needs. It would have 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.520 a docking leg system that basically turned it into an 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.240 underwater on the ocean floor platform that I did not get. 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:43.720 I think just basically it goes down there instead of 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:48.440 like hovering in place, turns into a building. But I 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.440 don't understand. I didn't understand how. But yes, that is 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.520 the understanding. Well, I had four legs, but that's crazy. 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:59.320 That means they had four three mile long legs. Yeah, 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.000 that doesn't make which since that does? You know what 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.920 I mean? I need to see a picture. I've seen 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:06.480 pictures of it. I still don't know what it really 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.120 meant with the legs. Yeah, well I don't know then. So, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.800 but that's that's one. That's the ship that they sail 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.600 out there to undertake the whole mission, right, Yeah, there's 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:17.559 two others that they have to come up with. Two. 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:22.319 That's right, capture vehicle. So that had a grabber right 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.560 on it. Yeah, like one of those banana clips that 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.280 girls used to wear in the nineties. Yeah, but for 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.880 a twenty five hundred ton submarine. Yes, and it wasn't 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.680 just like, hey, use a little grabber like that banana 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.679 clip it had. It was specifically designed to attach to 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.480 the submarine, right. It was the one glove, the one 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.440 thing it was designed to do. That's correct. So that's 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.559 that's step two. If you have one of these things 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.679 and you're loading it onto a massive ship. I think 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.160 a seven hundred foot ship is what they came up with. 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.480 Six hundred and eighteen foot long ship, many many meters long, 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:04.199 so many meters. Somebody's gonna say, what is that, Well, 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.280 the Soviets would yes, because they're flying over the US 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.120 with their spy cydlites ever since Sputnik got up there, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.480 so they're gonna want to know what that is. The 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.600 Soviet analysts are going to point this out. So if 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.840 you have this big long ship that sticks out like 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.400 a sore thumb, because what are you doing with that thing? 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.480 What are you also doing with this big grabber? How 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.440 do you get around the grabber part at least chuck 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.200 oh the grabber? Yeah, well you must be talking about 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.440 the barge. I am, so this is pretty amazing. This 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:39.280 thing had a retractable sunroof basically, and it was the 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:41.600 whole reason this thing was here was to hide everything 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:46.560 right right, So it was they built the grabber vehicle, 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:52.040 the vehicle number two, inside the bargees. But like you said, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.960 the barge had a sunroof. The thing about the barge 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.120 was it was also designed to be submersible. So what 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:00.600 they did was they built a barge that they built 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.080 the grabber inside of, floated the barge out to this 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.520 huge six and eighteen foot ship, Ship number one, submerged 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:14.240 it underneath the ship, opened up the sunroof on the barge, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.600 opened up the moon pool on the big ship, and 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.440 raised the grabber vehicle into the six hundred and eighteen 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.000 foot ship, so that the Soviets never even knew the 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.960 grabber vehicle existed. They never saw it. It just didn't exist. 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.160 And they had to build all this stuff from scratch, right. 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.880 It wasn't just like they had a grabber laying around 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.920 that vit a Soviet sub precisely, or this barge that 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:46.000 could become invisible file accounts and they so this was 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.920 basically this is what this this working group came up with, like, 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.280 these are the things you need to do this? Yes, 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.040 And the CIA said, who can we possibly get? Who 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.880 in the world, Well, Howard Hughes, Yes, mister Howard Hughes, 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:05.920 specifically the Suma or Summa Corporation and that was a 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.120 part of the Hughes Tool Company. And they said, go 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.960 build this thing at thirty six thousand tons six and 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:16.880 eighteen feet like you said. And they called it the 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.040 Hughes Glomar Explorer because Global Marine was the company that 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.760 operated it. And that's just an abbreviation of Global Marine. 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.000 I did not know until a couple of days ago. Yeah, 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.600 it's sort of a disappointing end to what Glomar meant. Yeah, 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.160 because it sounds kind of like space ag It definitely does, like, wow, 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:39.640 look at the healthy glow from radiation exposure. On that thing, Glomar, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.160 Glomar has got a great glow. And here's the other 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:47.040 cool thing. Because this would I mean, there would still 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.760 be a big beheamoth ship out there in the ocean 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.120 in the Pacific, and the Russians would wonder what was 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.640 going on. So they said, here's the deal. There are 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.000 actually it happened to sink in an area of the 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.760 Pacific where there are a lot of may Nganese, really 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:05.200 valuable manganese nodules underwater. So we'll just concoct this story 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.560 that said, Howard Hughes built the thing. You know how 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.560 crazy he is right to go out there and try 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.320 and mind the ocean's depths to get even richer. And 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.520 people actually bought that right. The press even bought it. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.240 They went to the trouble of saying, this is actually 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.879 a really good cover story because there was manganese deposits 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.640 in the area. It checked out. There was the idea 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:33.119 of deep sea mining was very new, so there wasn't 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.439 There was the idea that this would be a good idea, 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.080 but no one had tried to undertake it yet, so 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.800 the Soviets couldn't have been like, that's not a deep 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:42.800 sea mining ship. No one knew it a deep sea 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.000 mining ship looked like yet. Yeah, Plus it was very 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.679 Huesy in thing to do exactly right. He was extremely wealthy, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:52.080 so he had the kind of money to just undertake 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.840 deep sea mining and be the first one. But he 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.679 also operated in strict secrecy, and the press used to 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.320 watch his operation and projects from the outside and just 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.480 make guesses about it and create rumors. But it didn't 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.040 matter because it was all just conjecture and rumors, right, yeah, 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.520 so it was a perfect cover story. And then add 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.760 on to the top that Hughes was already in bed 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.399 with the US government in a number of ways, but 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:23.679 including making spy satellites in highly classified, top secret projects. 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.080 It was they couldn't have come up with a better 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:30.320 person to helm the actual carrying out of this of 0:18:30.359 --> 0:19:03.840 the project. Should we take a break? Yeah? All right? 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.960 So this this took a while. It was like years 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.080 had passed between the sub sinking and then actually saying 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.200 all right, I think we have a plan to do 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:16.960 this and we can get this done. And by the 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.800 time that came around, they said, wait a minute, like 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:21.760 should we even should we go take another look at 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.720 this thing? Is still intact. Should we bother? Is this 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.919 still relevant? Is it an asset or is it just 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.200 some rusty old, you know, hunk a metal at the 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.200 bottom of the ocean. Yeah. Is it basically like a 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.080 museum thing now? Yeah, So they said, and we're not 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:40.520 into Russian museums. No, let's be honest. So they did 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.680 form another committee. We're great at that, and they did 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:45.960 take another look, and they said, you know what, let's 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.919 go down there, guys, because even though these missiles, the 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.639 ss N five missiles are no longer like their big threat, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.160 they do have the ss N eight. Maybe we could 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:01.360 glean some technology and how these things operate, and there's 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:04.240 still that cryptographic equipment down there, which would be a 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.800 good asset for our intelligence. Right, So they said, okay, 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:10.040 let's do it. Come on, guys, let's do it. There 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.760 was another thing too, there's this great IO nine article 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:22.000 on this very project, and the author found some publication 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:26.119 of memos about project as orient Yeah, and one of 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.240 the things was that they were saying, like, yes, it's 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.879 still worth it intelligence wise and everything, but more to 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.760 the point, we're locked in the punch here, like the 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.520 US can't afford to seem wishy Washy to its contractors. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.080 That's crazy, So we need to do this regardless. Yeah, 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:43.879 that's kind of nutty when you think about it. That 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:48.879 the the risk of pissing off Howard Hughes. Huh. I 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.280 guess was too great, right, And I mean it sort 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:53.639 of makes sense in a way because if he was 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.680 a big time contractor for them. Yeah, I feel like 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.360 that relationship going. But yeah, there's not that many top 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.560 secret factors that you know you need trust and yeah, 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.040 you don't want to take them off, right. Very interesting though, 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.800 are we saying pissed off? Now? Sure? Is that a thing? 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.680 I guess it made an appearance in the last episode two? 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:16.640 Did I say that just now? No? No, the the listener, 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:21.000 male guy Peter Oh about vaping. Yeahbody said, I'm pissed off. 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.800 If you can't if you can't tell, well, I'm not sure, 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:25.480 but I appreciate you drawing attention to it. Well. I 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:27.560 guess we'll find out if Jerry bleeps all this out 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:29.680 or if we get booted out of the sixth grade 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.080 classes around the world. Yeah, kids, what you should say 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.840 is off, ticked off, and you really shouldn't say that. 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:36.920 You should say that I'm going to use my words 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:38.679 and let you know that what you just said bothered me. 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.359 Oh is that what you're supposed to say? Yeah? Okay, 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.280 speak like an adult. So how adults speak? I say, 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:50.000 pissed off. Here's the other side note, and this will 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.760 come into play later, is that there was another memo 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.400 that said, you know what, there are bodies down there, 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.800 and according to the Geneva Convention nineteen forty nine, there's 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.639 a proper way that you handle even and quote unquote 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:06.200 enemies remains, and we're gonna abide by that, and we're 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:08.600 gonna take all the stuff we need to make sure 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.160 that we can do that in a respectful way, because 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:14.680 this will eventually probably come out and at least maybe 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:17.840 that'll be a slight goodwill gesture to the Russians that say, hey, 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:22.040 we were very respectful of your dead seamen. Right. So 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:29.520 they outfitted the Huge Glomar Explorer Bloor Explorer, the hGe 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:34.159 with I think a capacity to handle one hundred bodies. Yeah, 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:36.679 which is kind of funny. If you were a sailor 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:41.000 engineer on the Huge Glomar Explorer might have made you 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.359 a little nervous, considering there were ninety eight sailors on 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:46.399 the sub that you were going to get. So they 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:49.400 made room for two more two more dead guys. Don't 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.199 think that was by accident either. Yeah, they didn't just 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:57.320 round up to a nice even hundred cadaver coolers. They 0:22:57.359 --> 0:22:59.720 I'm sure they're like, yeah, two people will probably die 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:05.040 on the mission, that's right. So there's there's another memo 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.800 from I think the nineteen seventy four June third, and 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.920 it basically said, hey, all this stuff's ready. The ship's ready, 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:19.959 the grabb Her class vehicle's ready, the barge is even ready. 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:23.159 Everything's ready. Let's do this. Are we going to do 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:27.520 it or not? They estimated a forty percent chance of success, 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.320 which they were like threw the moon over the moon about. Yeah, 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:34.200 they were over the moon pool about this, which is interesting. 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:38.280 But I guess when it's something something that tough to 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:46.440 accomplish and that innovative and and bleeding edge nice, the 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:48.920 apparently forty percent wasn't too bad, No, not at all. 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:51.840