Sea Shadow (IX-529) — The Final Viewing
Sea Shadow (1985–2012)
“It takes so long to say good bye; Goodbye is a long, long time!”…Dean Martin
Written in 2012:
Last Saturday was the final opportunity for most of us to pay our last respects to the Sea Shadow. Built in secrecy during the height of Cold War, she is a marvel of technology and graces the cover of the latest US Naval Institute publication Uncommon Warriors, 200 Years of the Most Unusual American Naval Vessels. The book has a chapter on both the Sea Shadow and her “mother ship” the HMB-1.
When Dr. William Perry — who later became Secretary of Defense — was head of DDR&E (Department of Defense Research and Engineering) he pioneered the stealth technology. His projects were the stealth fighter (F-117), the stealth cruise missile (cancelled) and the stealth ship. When the administration changed in 1981, the stealth ship was cancelled but a demonstration platform was authorized. She was named the Sea Shadow.
Built in Redwood City, inside the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1) — of Glomar Explorer fame — she was assembled carefully with the barge covers opening only in the middle of the night when no Russian satellites were overhead. After the Sea Shadow was built in 1985, the barge was towed to Santa Cruz Islands and operated as the mother ship (dry dock) for the Sea Shadow. After her night testing, she returned to Redwood City and was mothballed till 1992.
On Easter Sunday, 1993, Sea Shadow saw her first daylight operations, again off Santa Cruz Islands. The signature tests surpassed everyone’s expectations and we headed out to look for rough seas to test her sea keeping capability. With nearly 40 computers on board, the scientists finally declared “a fully risen Sea State 6” at about 2:30 at night! Sea State 6 has wave height of 13 to 20 feet and given that Sea Shadow’s draft is just 15 feet, that sure was very rough seas. And yet…while the large frigate and the coast guard cutter were rolling over 30 degrees, our maximum roll was 3.5 degrees! Comfortable enough to leave your coffee cup on the table and not worry about it sliding off.
As the word of Sea Shadow’s performance spread, Lockheed Martin decided to sponsor a highly visible week of sailing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Perry flew out to ride her with a planeload of dignitaries from Washington DC.
Over the next few years she [now also assigned IX-529 by the USN] operated out of San Diego Naval Station and operated with impunity at night during the war games. In 2006, she was retired and moved to Suisun Bay inside the barge. This year Bay Ship & Yacht Company, Alameda, CA acquired them both with directions to scrap the Sea Shadow. They plan to use the barge as a dry-dock after the Sea Shadow is scrapped. After all HMB-1 was the world’s largest submersible when she was built!
Last weekend Bay Ship was kind enough to open the Barge and the Sea Shadow to those who had worked on them. Over 150 people including spouses, children and grand children showed up. There were veterans of the Azorean project who will still not confirm or deny the raising of the Russian submarine!
The only A-Frame SWATH ship in the world, Sea Shadow was also the model for the stealth ship in the James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies. [Supposedly, a character is named Gupta, after me!] A large number of technologies were developed and tested on her and her legacy will live on in the next generation of Naval warfare vessels as well as SWATH ships like the T-AGOS class.
Finally it was time to say Goodbye! Each and every one of us lingered long and gave it a last loving look before departing. Sea Shadow may get dismantled, but our memories will always live with us.
A video of the Sea Shadow is available on YouTube.
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S. K. Gupta is a former senior executive of a Fortune 50 corporation. He enjoys researching and writing about not-so-obvious things in life. Feedback welcome. sk.gupta.us at gmail dot com.
