Bay Ship & Yacht Drydock (Ex-HMB-1)

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Built by Lockheed in 1973 to house the top-secret construction of a complex capture vehicle named 'Clementine' for the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Bay Ship & Yacht Drydock is a semi-submersible barge created solely for its use as part of "Project Azorian".

Under the guise of supporting subsea mining operations, the barge was “purchased” by the Hughes Company upon its completion and remained pierside as the ‘Clementine’ rig was assembled within its bay. Towed to sea in 1974 and submerged onto specially-installed pilings off Catalina Island, the barge was then mated with the specialized drillship M/V Glomar Explorer which loaded the ‘Clementine’ aboard through the barges’ fully retractable roof. Remaining stateside and awaiting the return of the Glomar Explorer with its planned top-secret cargo of the sunken Soviet Submarine K-129, the barge took aboard only the small section of hull that was recovered and brought it clandestinely to shore in August of 1974, thus ending her CIA career.

Laid up idle at the San Francisco yard of Todd Shipbuilding through 1982, the barge found a second calling when it was selected to serve as the berth for the top-secret experimental ship Sea Shadow, then under development at the Lockheed Sunnyvale facility. Based out of Alameda and other locations along the US West Coast with her top-secret cargo, the Hughes Mining Barge supported the extensive evaluations and tactics training missions carried out by Sea Shadow and her crew until the experimental ship’s deactivation.

Mothballed in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet since the early 1990's housing the Sea Shadow, both the Hughes Mining Barge and its cargo were sold for scrapping by the US Maritime Administration in June 2012 as one lot, and after being purchased by the Bay Ship & Yacht Company of Alameda, California, the pair were towed to their current location at Treasure Island. Under contractual terms to demolish the Sea Shadow, scrappers broke up the ship en situ aboard the Hughes Mining Barge, and after overhauling the barge's operating systems and giving it a fresh paint job, Bay Ship shifted the drydock to their Alameda shipyard where they now utilize it as a unique covered drydock facility.

www.bay-ship.com/
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More info on Project Azorian: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian