Project Azorian
On March 8, 1968, 1,560 nautical miles (2,890 km) northwest of Oahu in the Pacific Ocean the Golf II class submarine K-129 exceeded its crush depth for unknown reasons and imploded, the accident being registered by the SOSUS network. The entire crew of 98 was lost and the vessel sank with three ballistic nuclear missiles as well as two nuclear torpedoes. The United States recovered parts of the submarine in July 1974 from a depth of around 5 km, in an operation named Project Azorian.
Two nuclear submarines that had been facing retirement, USS Halibut (SSGN-587) and USS Seawolf (SSN-575), were rebuilt and pressed into service as deep sea search vehicles. After Halibut discovered a sunken Soviet submarine containing at least one intact ballistic missile complete with nuclear warhead, Melvin Laird, United States Secretary of Defense under President Richard Nixon, approved Azorian. Six years later, 350 nautical miles (648 km) north of the Hawaiian Leeward Islands, a mechanical claw descended 17,000 feet (5,200 m) to the bottom of the Pacific and, guided by computers on board the Glomar Explorer, clamped onto the mass of twisted, rusting steel and began slowly raising it to the surface. It is unknown for sure how successful the effort was, but the United States has admitted to recovering a portion of K-129, which included six bodies of Soviet sailors that were buried at sea with full honors.
Read more about this topic: Golf Class Submarine
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