USS Halibut Sub Brief 

The story of how US intelligence found the cable is also pretty funny as it’s laid out in Blind Man’s Bluff. A guy was fishing and saw a US government sign “No anchoring, communication cables below” And he thought, hey if we have these signs I’m sure the Russians do too. And sure enough they found those signs and used them to find the cables.

I was a kid, maybe 12yrs old, my dad was stationed at Mare Island and he worked on the support of the Halibut, SUBDEV GROUP 1. He took me to the "office" once and I remember her, the Halibut being tied up at the pier and the hump. He would invite some of the Navy Seals home for dinner during the holidays. Prior to that he was Sonar Chief on the USS Tautog, and he was on duty at the time. He said you didn't need the headsets, you could hear it through the hull. Blind Mans Bluff was an education to what he did in the Navy

Legend has it that she is still operational and was recently seen near the Nordstream pipeline...

I love when Jive does a sub brief just for the Halibut

I remember seeing halibut up at PSNS in the mothball fleet after decom in the early 90s. She was tucked in by one of the carriers- Ranger, I think. I remember thinking how odd that sub looked with the hump on the front. Fast forward to 10 years after I got out of the Navy and reading Blind Mans Bluff I realized what I had seen. Pretty cool. Great job breaking down her story.

My Granfather helped install the Halibut's reactor. Fascinating history and if he was here I'm sure he would thank you for this presentation.

My dad did work with the USS Halibut back then but never said what he or "they" were doing to it. Like you said "spook stuff" my dad and brother that worked at Mare would say!!!!

That bug story is quite impressive. It sounds like they passively captured the EMI from the cable and recorded that? If there were tens of pairs of wires on that cable, it rapidly becomes an amazing feat to actually get any useful information out. Those divers pioneered pressurized living, which is used a lot in the oilfield now. I think they have a fancy terminology for it, but pressurized living makes sense.

I’m still amazed that despite being enemies, the 6 bodies of those Soviet Submariners that were recovered when a section of K-129 was recovered by the Hughes Glomar. The US Navy and the crew of the Glomar gave those six Submariners a proper burial at Sea and then all identifiable information along with the video were sent back to Russia so that the families of those 6 Russian Submariners could have closure. Though they were enemies, but the one factor that they had in common was that they were fellow seamen and submariners.

I just picture a badass sci-fi underwater spear gun fight between the sub spooks and the soviets. Its all pretty impressive for 1970s

I second the recommendation of the book Blind Man’s Bluff. Great read. Learned a lot I didn’t know from lots of previous reading.

I used to live in Vallejo while stationed onboard USS Arkansas (CGN 41). From about 14:30 on, launch picture, we are looking across the water (Mare Island Strait) into Vallejo. To drive to Mare Island (in the early nineties), you would have to cross a bridge from Vallejo to the island.

At launch that was Vallejo in the background not San Francisco which is a 45+ minute drive away. Also remember the Parche and Russell replaced Halibut at least in modification as a spec ops vessel. The legs on the bottom I believe were called Skegs. I believe Ronald Pelton compromised it (Ivy not Ivory Bells) not in the 70s but the early 80s. The reactors are at Hanford near Richland Washington.

I have been waiting for a brief on Halibut or Seawolf. Although these were before my time, I had engineering responsibilities for subsequent 'Porject Boat' SSN conversions. The introduction of saturation diving support to submarines added tremendous complexity. There were dozens of additional compressed gas flasks added and miles of piping all of which had stringent cleanless requirements. The divers suits (UBA EX14) had hot water supply to allow extended work in 28 degree seawater.

I remember when I was little dad took the family to the trade shops, where they di lay out, bending ,welding. I recall they were balancing a drive shaft for a ship. The skilled people who worked at the ship yard

I read "Blind Man's Bluff" decades ago & I was astonished. The commitment, technology, and missions were both 007 and real world. Highly recommend this read for your audience, and thank you for this presentation!

OMG I never thought about that... do saturation diving on a specially modified sub... what a freeking good idea. Kind of ironic the name and what she wound up doing. A halibut is a goofy looking fish with 2 eyes on 1 side of a flat body. It sit's side ways "flat" on the bottom of the ocean hiding and waiting for pray. Kind of exactly like what the sub wound up doing.

Aaron wrong, steering and diving hydraulics uses a different type of oil that emulsifies in the water and doesn't create an oil sheen on the surface in the case of a leak. But hey I forgot a lot of stuff too.

when Mare closed ir was given back to city of Vallejo, there are business using the shipyard for various manufacturing, and some ship repair. I think they still use the dry docks

Great sub brief! One thing, I dont think they will burry the decommissioned reactors. I think it has something to do with the non nuclear proliferation treaties with Russia. Granted, in the last few weeks that has changed, but I think they needed them to be able to be imaged by russian satellites. Really love the brief tho!!!

I liked how the divers would pull tricks on each other from crew to crew. Leaving a horned skull from a bull for the next diver to swim up on in the dark as he was tracking the cable to the Bug was 😈 genius.🤣👍🏻 Important boat.

I love the story of the Halibut. Absolute Cold War LEGEND. I might do a video on my own channel.

kind of a long story. In 1974 I was a 19 year old who got a job filling vending machines at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, MINSY for short. One of our locations that had candy machines was out at the station where subs would load up with fresh water and supplies just prior to sailing. I was told it was distilled water, but I don’t know that. This spot was selling 300 candy bars DAILY when there was a boat tied up. No boat, ZERO sales! Zero sales was a pain because we had to empty the machines so as to not spoil the product, so I had a legit reason for knowing the status. Fill today only to empty it out the next week was a pain! I was filling the candy machine after a boat, don’t recall which one, perhaps the Halibut but I think it was the Seawolf, had been tied dockside for a week or so, when I asked an officer if the boat was going to be there for much longer. OMFG, this guy went ballistic, threatening me with my security clearance AT LENGTH, like he was dressing down an unqualified E1! As I recall he was a light commander, so maybe the XO? I do know he was pissed, or maybe he faked it all, but I was convinced!! Many years later I was a collector for Pizante Music, a Music & Games operator, and the “Horse Cow” was one of our locations. FYI, DBF was the mantra and there was a model of a diesel boat on the roof, visible from Interstate 80. I bought an old pool table for $100 that was broken in a bar fight inside that stellar establishment, which was featured in the forward to “Blind man’s bluff”. It wasn’t until I read that great book that I understood my ass chewing and the significance of the Horse Cow! DBF = Diesel Boats Forever and the place smelled like stale beer and puke. The table I bought had been “thrown” in the bar fight. Musta been a good one!

Actually, we could listen in on the cable in real time onboard the Halibut. I had the opportunity to witness this when one of our "spooks" in a monitoring room flagged me in to see what they had. It was fascinating.

Lots of knowledge here. I appreciate it. I figured Mr Sutton would be involved in this somewhere, glad to hear him mentioned.

Maybe sub brief on epic escape of WW2 Polish sub Orzel, what an amazing story(know its bit out of scope of channel) . Great content as always. 👍

What an interesting boat Halibut would have been to serve on!

23:00 lol, TROUNCE antenna for the guidance system. Nice to see that silly acronym generation is a time honored tradition.

Hi! I'm a cadet at cal maritime and our campus is very close to mare island shipyard. I toured the shipyard back in November. The shipyard has been quite busy recently with quite a few vessels. The USNS Pecos recently spent many months refitting here and has returned once again. I have also seen a USCG cutter for a while. They also recently floated in a floating barracks for what I assume are the shipyard workers or staff onboard other MSC vessels that have been laid up there. While touring the USNS Pecos, I also saw an MSC Catamaran in dry dock and a civillian tanker. You can still see the remnants of the decommissioned naval base. It seems like the Mare Island Shipyard has been revived recently.

I can’t believe the Russians have our old bug just chilling on a stand in museum. From when the Soviet drug it up, that bug was possibly the highest piece tech on Soviet soil for years.

Really great video. I appreciate the level of detail and the fact you shout out all of your sources. The graphics and pictures were awesome. Keep the briefs coming!!!!

USS Grayback was a diesel boat that had 2 regulus missile tubes on the bow that did missile patrols. She also was converted to a seal deployment boat

Ronald Pelton was the name of the NSA analyst that went to the Russians with the Ivory Bells info.

I’m glad I found this channel. I’m enjoying it. Thanks.

My Grandpa was on the halibut, cool to see a brief of it on the channel

Excellent story. Well related.

I believe you got the hydraulics issue backwards. 18:14 "hydraulics oil doesn't compress" is wrong. It is water that does not compress; oil compresses readily. There are water-based and oil=based hydraulics, and I'm not sure which was used on this sub; but what I can tell you is that if it was oil based then it relied on the fluid being compressible, and water getting in would make it less compressible. On the other hand, if it was water-based hydraulics relying on water's incompressibility for metering out precise motions, then indeed, ocean water mixing in with it might degrade precision.

The Regulus-2 was an all inertial guided missile designed to solve the inherent weaknesses in the Regulus-1 design. It did not require any guidance after launch.

A masterpiece my good man, yours is the best submarine channel on youtube!

Excellent! Thanks

I took a quick look on Google maps, and as of the last satellite photo of Mare Island at least some of the dry docks are in use. One had a ship in it and the others were empty but dry with what looked like keel blocks in them.

Great video on an amazing submarine!

I am always impressed by the illustrations H.I. Sutton makes. His website is a treasure trove of information.

I wonder if the Halibut had the same torque problems with the twin-shaft configuration as the Soviet machine, along with the turbulence issues, I mentioned before to you on other segments. the speed is not the same as the vessels in the 70's & 80's but the same idea with counter-rotating propellers adding a nice flutter between the tail fins. Remember?

I like your videos a lot and I'm a big fan. Keep doing what your doing. RECCOMENDATION: I would consider using a Cursor Highlighter that will make it much easier for viewers to visually locate and see the items you are pointing out on your computer screen. There are several different varieties that are free, downloadable, and easy to install. For example, there are several like "Pointer Focus," "Pen Attention," or "Spot on the Mouse" that you might try. Thanks.

So I’m exactly zero of a Navy guy, born on an AF base and came up Army but I must admit, your videos have made me wildly interested in seaborne ops and equipment.

Modern subs are the F-22 equivalent… I’m betting the deep stealth modern navy is WILD…and I’m an aviation person…knowing how special the F-22 and similar craft are.

Yes the stars aligned and they got very lucky with k129. We all know why, they just happened to be there.

"They got very lucky" - you are hilarious.

Great briefing! I read Blind Man’s Bluff and it’s good to have blueprint visuals. And I can’t believe he sold us out for $35k. When I read about it, I was so dumbfounded.

Clearing up things bit: The photo showing the launch has Vallejo in the background. The control station is a bit different than what was actually on the boat by the time I was onboard. We had only two positions, left was stern planes, and the right was bow planes and rudder. Also I would imagine that thruster controls are not in the photo as that came later (controlled by the bow planes/rudder man)

I would not want to be a saturation diver in the 70s

Oh boy I have been waiting for this one. John P Craven is my favorite non-navy navy person.

Merritt Island is still a somewhat active shipyard and does maintenance on the maritime support fleet like the algo and other partnerships in MSC

Around the 16 minute mark when you show the control station simulator, the silver haired gent looks like he could be Rickover.

Such great content I have to join, feel like a freeloader

OMG. The cover story for the secret mission to tap the Soviet Navy Com lines is another secret mission to recover test missiles! :D

These Special Ops Subs have done more for the navy than many super carriers. I wonder what the average length service the sailors who stationed on these unique subs have. I hear the coast guard has a problem of not recruiting but getting old guys to retire so new blood could get a slot, if that's true then the other branches should pay attention to do self-examination. It would be bizarre to have air-force pilots be ordered to fly the f-35 prototypes while you have old salts being all cool with the idea of serving another 20 years in the coast guard.

one of the USSV, Springfield base in STL I believe served on this ship..

mare island is in the sonoma river a short distance from San Pablo Bay which is then connected to San Franciso Bay, about 35 miles away

The Tender at 6:20 is AS-39 Emory S Land which is still in service.

My math teachers favorite line : why are we doing this problem? For the halibut

Regulus boats and the Triton were two designs that didn’t need to be built. But… We HAD to keep building subs. The Cold War demanded it!

The Halibut wasn't the only sub to do Ivy Bell, the Seawolf did battery/tape change missions

I enjoy your videos. From 1969 through 1989, I was a Naval officer; much that your report is familiar and it brings back many memories. This video, however, has a factual error of some significance. The code word for the Soviet communication intercept program was “Ivy Bells,” not “Ivory Bells” (as you erroneously indicted).

Blind Man’s Bluff was superb 👌🏻 What other sub novels or naval books would you recommend reading. Ive read: Red star rogue, all hands down, Kursk down. All 👍🏻

Was this the sub that crew couldn't go aft while dockside due to radiation contamination? That NSA traitor was Ronald Pelton.

Isn't it hazardous to go close to the bottom in a nuke sub? I wonder how they prevented mud / silt ingestion in those constant running coolant pumps.

Thank you! I really enjoy your videos. Would you consider making a video deceiving how the US Navy would go about closing “choke-points”,into the South China Sea in the event China moves on Taiwan. Closing these “choke-points” for the purpose of preventing oil and other material from reaching China may prevent a larger more deadly battle.

The correct term for “city- killing” is “counter-value-targeting.”

That last photo with the secured reactor compartments is interesting. I'm glad to see we're putting a bit more effort into storing them than the Russians.

The New York City Intrepid Museum has the Growler docked with a Regulus mock-up missile on it's deck.

Mare Island launched into the Napa River the building’s would have been Vallejo, CA and just downstream ~1mile would have been the Carquinez Straits and north end of San Francisco Bay about 20 miles to Golden Gare Bridge the mothball fleet where MANY ships were stored including the Glomar Explorer and USS Iowa BB-61

I was JUST chatting with some people on the C:MO Discord about the Halibut and Parche. Thanks. :)

32:00 - on this photo is not hull K-129, but sail ! Hull is on the right.

Rebreathers weren't remotely new in the 1970s, they weren't even new in WW2 or WW1. Of course there were developments and improvements to them along the way since the 1800s, a WW2 Rebreather certainly wouldn't have worked at the depths the Halibut was working at, but still. I'm not sure why using Rebreathers in 1970 is impressive... Maybe they were one of the first applications for a really deep ocean mixed gas rebreather?

Very good

I can believe that those pictures of k-129 were taken in 68. What i cant believe is that it only took apple till the eye phone 10 or whatever to take a decent picture period.

There is a Viet Nam era armed supply ship at Mare Island open for tours staffed by Vets. Its the size of the ship in your picture. Diesel Engines. Radio room in operation.

Would be interesting the see the Soviet admirals messages after they where informed about the operation.

Australian Government will be deciding which SSN we will be getting soon

Спасибо

Thunder Below! By admiral Eugene Fluckey is free on audible.

the photo of the sub in dry dock , the city is Vallejo Ca.

Amazing - is this the "latest model" US submarine we have so many details about ?

I didn't know they still used wood... I suppose it's perfect. Cheap and effective

So since the divers chamber was pressurized to their depth, does that mean they couldn't emergency surface? Or would it hold that pressure for the divers and could depressurize later?

Other reputable sources have said that nuclear subs can't just sit on the sea floor, since their reactor cooling system needs water flowing past. A bit like a shark that needs to continually keep swimming to get its oxygen. So I was a bit puzzled by your story of Halibut sitting on the bottom, albeit on sleds.

I read that the rapid compression causes intense firey heat.

ahh yes the highly technical "Twisty Handles"

My dream of a regulus sub AND LPSS in Sub Brief comes true

Can it be that the IJN's I-400 was used as the inspiration for the Halibut?

The V1 was not a rocket bomb, it had a pulsejet engine. The V2 was a rocket bomb.

These feet, caused marks in the baltic, near sweden and cause the swedish military a stir blaming the soviets, saying they had underwater tanks

I'm just here for the Halibut.

The back ground is Vallejo, California

I assume if you like this channel you have read “Blind Man’s Bluff” if not you should. I would love a first hand account from those sub based saturation divers. Astronauts must think they’re crazy.

It's IVY bells I believe

Yes!!!!!!

Nice job but your cursor is almost invisible. Ca you make it larger the next time?