Hughes Glomar Explorer

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Hughes Glomar Explorer
USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) .jpg
Ship data
flag VanuatuVanuatu Vanuatu
other ship names

USNS Glomar Explorer
GFS Explorer

Callsign YJQQ3
home port Port Vila
Owner GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company
Shipping company Transocean
Shipyard Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock , Chester , Pennsylvania
Build number 661
Launch November 9, 1972
Whereabouts scrapped from June 5, 2015 in Alang
Ship dimensions and crew
length
188.57 m ( Lüa )
179.70 m ( Lpp )
width 35.27 m
Side height 15.49 m
Draft Max. 10.70 m
displacement 63,000 tons fully loaded
measurement 27,686 GT / 8,305 GT
 
crew 160
Machine system
machine diesel-electric
Top
speed
10.8 kn (20 km / h)
propeller 2 × propellers
Transport capacities
Load capacity 40,343 dwt
Others
Classifications American Bureau of Shipping
Indian Register of Shipping
Registration
numbers
IMO no. 7233292

The Hughes Glomar Explorer ( HGE ), in the United States Navy formerly USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) called, was a ship that in 1972 by the United States to recover a Soviet submarine - wrecks built of 5,000 meters depth has been. After the operation, the ship was almost exclusively in until 1997 Reserve Fleet of the US Navy launched , but was then at Global SantaFe sold (GSF) and deep - drilling vessel refitted. In 2015 it was scrapped. Her last name was GSF Explorer .

history

After the Soviet submarine K-129 sank in 1968, the United States Navy found the wreck around 1500 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii at a depth of around 5000 meters; the Soviet Navy, however, did not know the place of the sinking. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) then had a special ship built that was supposed to secretly salvage the wreck. The operation was christened the Azorian Project . In order not to endanger the secrecy, Howard Hughes was asked to have the ship built; Allegedly, it was supposed to mine ores , especially manganese nodules , from the sea ​​floor . The cost is said to have been around $ 350 million.

The shipyard for the Hughes Glomar Explorer was Sun Shipbuilding in Chester , Pennsylvania . On November 9, 1972, the ship was launched , after test drives , the Hughes Glomar Explorer left the shipyard in April 1973, but without the secret equipment for the submarine recovery. The ship entered service on July 1, 1973. From the end of 1973, the equipment for the salvage of the sunken submarine was installed in Long Beach , California . To bring the gripper arm on board, a submersible barge , the Hughes Mining Barge , was specially developed. The Hughes Glomar Explorer maneuvered over them and picked up the gripper arm through the hatch in the fuselage. In June 1974 the journey to the place where the submarine sank began. In July and August, the Hughes Glomar Explorer only managed to recover the bow segment of K-129 , which broke off the fuselage when it was lifted.

When the 1975 Los Angeles Times and, weeks later, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh in The New York Times revealed the true purpose of the Hughes Glomar Explorer , the US government had no more use for the ship. The General Services Administration tried unsuccessfully to lease it but couldn't find any lessees. It was therefore launched in 1977 . In 1978, the ship, renamed the Glomar Explorer , was actually used for attempts to mine ore under the sea, but was then re-launched.

In 1997, the Glomar Explorer was leased for 30 years to Global Marine Drilling, who had the ship upgraded to a deep-sea drilling ship at Atlantic Marine in 1998 . For the company now operating as GlobalSantaFe Corporation , the ship sailed as a GSF Explorer ; until July 2014 it was on the road for ONGC off India. In mid-April 2015, Transocean announced the upcoming scrapping of the GSF Explorer . From June 5, 2015, the drilling ship was finally scrapped in Alang.

technology

The ship was 188 meters long and 35.3 meters wide. It displaced around 63,000 standard tons when fully loaded . The exterior was dominated by the “ drilling tower ”, which protruded 80 meters above the keel amidships , and the two smaller lattice towers in front of and behind. The main feature was a loading bay in the bottom of the ship, from which a 50 meter long gripper arm could be lowered to the seabed. It was held in position by rods that had to be threaded through an 80 meter high winding tower. On board there were 600 parts of the boom around nine meters long. The two lattice towers standing next to the winding tower held the gripper arm under the ship. The lattice masts could also be lowered so that the gripper arm could be pulled into the loading hatch from below and thus installed.

The winches were designed to lift the approximately 7,000 tons of weight of the K-129, the linkage and the gripper arm. All of this was stored on a platform that was able to compensate for waves and keep the towers always perpendicular to the water surface. Using five thrusters , a computer was able to hold the entire ship precisely above sonar transponders placed on the seabed. The Glomar Explorer is estimated to have cost $ 350 million. The crew consisted of around 160 men.

The propulsion of the ship was diesel-electric . It consisted of six diesel engines and five electric motors with an output of 13,200 shaft horsepower on two shafts. The ship reached a speed of up to 10.8 knots.

Web links

Commons : Hughes Glomar Explorer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. GSF Explorer. (PDF) Transocean, February 26, 2015, p. 1 , accessed on November 13, 2017 (English).
  2. ^ A b Norman Polmar: Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet. US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2005, ISBN 978-1-59114-685-8 , p. 251.
  3. Transocean: Fleet Status Report July 2014 (PDF; 412 kB; English)
  4. ^ Transocean: Two contracts in, one out, one rig to the scrapyard. In: Offshore Energy Today. April 17, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 .
  5. Ship demolitions 2015 pt 2 . merseyshipping (english)
  6. Diagram of the Glomar Explorer on white.at ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (engl.) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / projectjennifer.white.at