SUBMARINE STEAL
The K-129 was a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine carrying three ballistic nuclear missiles. After its unexplained disappearance in March 1968 and an unsuccessful Soviet search, the US set out to find and take the submarine for itself. This mission was given the codename Project Azorian. Within a few weeks the submarine was located, but the salvage operation wasn’t going to be a simple one. The mission was to lift 1.4 million kilograms of submarine over a distance of 3.1 miles up through the water. A ship was designed especially to deploy a steel pipe with a large claw on the end. But the salvage attempt didn’t go to plan as one of the fingers broke, sending some of the submarine falling back to the seabed. However, a section of the submarine was retrieved.