In 1968, a GOLF-II diesel-electric ballastic missile sub sank with all hands in the Pacific northwest of Hawaii. Project Azorian (erroneously called "Jennifer" by the press after its Top Secret Security Compartment) was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. In the following months, various articles linked the Glomar Explorer , and its cover as deep-sea mining operation, to the CIA and the submarine salvage effort. Project AZORIAN: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129, by Norman Polmar and Michael White (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010), 239 pages. "Glomar" is the syllabic abbreviation of Global Marine, the company commissioned by the CIA to build the Glomar Explorer. The location of the wreck remains an official secret of the United States intelligence services. The basic idea behind Project Jennifer—the code name used —was certainly imaginative: to locate and raise from the ocean bottom three miles deep a Soviet submarine that had sunk in 1968. Coordinates: 40°06′00″N 179°54′00″E / 40.1°N 179.9°E / "Azorian" (erroneously called "Jennifer" after its Top Secret Security Compartment by the press) was the code name for a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in the summer of 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. The Soviet Golf-class ballistic missile submarine (SSB) K-129 sank off Hawaii on 11 April 1968, probably due to a missile malfunction. The building of Glomar Explorer, or Hughes Mining Barge 1, and the submarine recovery effort were code named Project Jennifer. View page in TimesMachine. Desperate to recover this document, CIA called in the FBI, which in turn enlisted the Los Angeles Police Department. In June 1974, just before the Glomar set sail, thieves had broken into the offices of the Summa Corporation and stolen secret documents, one tying Howard Hughes to CIA and the Glomar Explorer. Relaunched in 1998 as the latest offshore technological phenomenon, Glomar Explorer had begun in 1972 as a secret project of the Central Intelligence Agency. Project Azorian (erroneously called "Jennifer" by the press after its Top Secret Security Compartment) was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. Project Jennifer. Hughes Glomar Explorer was designed and built under CIA contract solely for the purpose of conducting a clandestine salvage of K-129. The work of the Glomar Explorer, an ASME historical mechanical engineering landmark, in the Cold War's Project Azorian, is detailed in a new book on the CIA's efforts to recover a sunken Soviet submarine from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The Hughes Glomar Explorer [HGE] was built in 1973 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for an intricate CIA undertaking. According to a Radiolab podcast, the original text of the Glomar response was written by Walt Logan ( pseudonym ), who was at that time an Associate General Counsel at the CIA. The Hughes Glomar Explorer [HGE] was built in 1973 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for an intricate CIA undertaking. Codenamed “Project Jennifer,” the plan was to use a giant claw dangling on the end of a three-mile-long tether to grasp the submarine and raise it into a “moon pool” – a large area open to the sea – built inside the Glomar Explorer. On April 11, 1968, Naval Intelligence at Pearl Harbor intercepted distress messages from a Soviet submarine. Project Azorian (erroneously called "Jennifer" by the press after its Top Secret Security Compartment) was a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. The Hughes Glomar Explorer's Mission. Yep, it was called Project JENNIFER and the ship was called the GLOMAR EXPLORER. In 1975, reporters from the Los Angeles Times broke the story of the Glomar Explorer . Reviewed by David Robarge. AZORIAN: The Raising of the K-129, written, directed, and produced by Michael White (Michael White Films, 2009). The Glomar Explorer in Film and Print. For the first time, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has declassified substantive information on one of its most secret and sensitive schemes, "Project Azorian," the Agency codename for its ambitious plan to raise a sunken Soviet submarine from the floor of the Pacific Ocean in order to retrieve its secrets. From Andrew Toppan's sci.military.naval FAQ: Project Jennifer was the codename applied to the CIA project that salvaged part of a sunken Soviet submarine in 1974. Project Azorian The CIA's Declassified History of the Glomar Explorer By Matthew Aid.