Keen to make its Alameda-based operation more environmentally friendly, Bay Ship & Yacht Company has recycled and repurposed a submersible floating dry dock built by the Navy in the 1970s.
Photo by Tom Paiva
By Bill Picture
Published: November, 2013
Keen to make its Alameda-based operation more environmentally friendly, Bay Ship & Yacht Company has recycled and repurposed a submersible floating dry dock built by the Navy in the 1970s.
HMB-1, as it was dubbed by its designers, features a retractable roof that not only allows Bay Ship & Yacht Company—which has been servicing large commercial vessels and superyachts at its shipyard for decades—to do its work in less-than-ideal weather conditions, but also helps keep possible contaminants contained so that they don’t end up in the Bay.
Cold War-era covertness
While the existence of HMB-1, which stands for Hughes Mining Barge, wasn’t kept a secret from the general public, its true purpose was known only to highest-ranking government and military officials until quite recently. "Yeah, it’s what was inside that was the secret," said Bay Ship & Yacht General Manager Alan Cameron.
Submersible up to a depth of 160 feet, HMB-1 was originally part of a top-secret plan hatched in 1974 by the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Navy to recover the wreckage of sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the bottom of the North Pacific. The Soviet sub was believed to be carrying nuclear-armed ballistic missiles when it sunk.
For that recovery mission, dubbed Project Azorian, HMB-1 worked in tandem with the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a deep-sea drillship platform designed and built to raise the submarine from the ocean floor. Because the CIA knew an operation of this scale would draw the attention and ire of the Kremlin, an elaborate lie made it appear as if the Hughes Glomar Explorer was simply mining for manganese nodules at the bottom of the ocean.
A large grappling hook lowered from the Hughes Glomar Explorer was to grab the submarine and covertly transfer it to the submerged HMB-1, which could then be towed back to the United States without raising suspicion. Unfortunately, the hook failed as the sub was being raised, and the section believed to be housing the missiles fell back to the ocean floor—but the recovered pieces did provide some insight into Soviet technology.
After Project Azorian’s completion, HMB-1 was transferred to Lockheed and moved to the company’s Redwood City facility, where it was used to build an experimental stealth ship for the U.S. Navy. That ship, Sea Shadow, had a profile specially designed to evade radar detection, with submerged twin hulls that maximized the vessel’s stability in high seas and at high speeds.
While it paved the way for superior stealth ships to follow, Sea Shadow itself was never commissioned and, along with HMB-1, sat at the San Diego Naval Station for years collecting dust.
"That’s how I heard about it," said Alan Cameron. "The PBS program California’s Gold did a show about it a while back. We immediately recognized what we could do with an enclosed dry dock. We thought, ‘That cover could solve so many problems.’ So we started tracking her, hoping one day she’d come up for auction."
Put into mothballs
HMB-1 was eventually moved to Suisun Bay to join the U.S. Navy’s reserve fleet there. This graveyard of retired vessels has affectionately been dubbed the "mothball fleet." "When the government started liquidating its assets and it came up for auction, we put in a bid," Cameron said.
Even though Bay Ship & Yacht Company would eventually be awarded the vessel, the company’s bid wasn’t the highest. "The highest bidder was a Chinese outfit, I believe," Cameron said. "Even though the Sea Shadow project had been declassified, there were still some privacy issues, so the government didn’t want to sell her to a foreign entity."
"And the second highest bidder, which was a company in the Gulf Coast, backed out when they realized how much it would cost to move her down there. We actually wrote it off as ‘not gonna happen’ when we found out we’d been outbid. Then we got a call a month later letting us know she was ours if we still wanted her."
The $2.5 million price tag was small compared to the $15-$20 million that it would cost to build a new traditional dry dock, which Bay Ship & Yacht had been considering for some time. "And we wouldn’t have that cover, which makes HMB-1 such a strong and unique piece of equipment," Cameron said. He estimates that to build HMB-1 now would cost upwards of $50 million.
The biggest challenge that shipbuilders and ship repairers face with traditional open-air dry docks is weather. Rain (or any moisture) and wind can bring a job to a screeching halt, making income harder to come by during winter months. "HMB-1 is definitely going to be an asset in that respect this winter," Cameron said. "But it’s the ability to be more efficient and the environmental aspects that we’re all really excited about."
A new green lease on life
Traditional open-air dry docks put not only ships and workers at the mercy of the elements, they also make it easy for blasting abrasives, gasoline, oil, paint, paint chips and solvents used during a job to find their way into the environment, and more specifically, into the Bay. "I’d say that generally this industry has really lagged behind in the area of sustainability, but it’s very important to us," Cameron said.
Bay Ship & Yacht Company goes to great lengths to keep Bay-unfriendly materials out of receiving waters, and from reaching sewers that eventually discharge into the Bay. "It’s not easy," he said. "But the fact of the matter is, we can’t continue to do business the way we were 20 or 30 years ago. We have a vested interested in the health of the Bay, so it’s up to us to do our part to protect it."
"And being able to recycle and reuse this 4,000-ton piece of equipment that’s just been sitting there for all these years is another great step in the right direction. I know I’m excited that we could find a new purpose for HMB-1."
For more information on Bay Ship & Yacht Company, visit www.bay-ship.com
It is estimated that building an new covered dry dock the size of the HMB-1 would cost about $50 million today. Photo by Tom Paiva
Exposure to adverse weather conditions is a challenge that can cause many setbacks and project delays with open-air dry docks. The HMB-1 will provide Bay Ship & Yacht with a protected environment to work in during the winter months as well as protect the environment around it. Photo by Tom Paiva
