Originally Posted by
tdracer
Is salvage of old wrecks actually criminal? Despicable - no question, but is it really illegal?
Yes, they remain the property of the flag state, and removal of any part of them would be the same as stealing any part of a military ship or plane or vehicle above high tide mark. The old wrecks are separately covered by UNCLOS, and trafficking in their artefacts is trafficking, and all involved can be prosecuted. The War Grave case is a separate matter but causes offensive.
When project Azorian/Glomar Explorer raised part of K-129, that was not compliant with international law, and the embarrassment of the USSR was sufficient to keep it a relatively open secret. The handing over of the ships bell by the US to the Russian Federation in 1993 made a point but also followed the law. 18 years late, but better late than never. The fact that the bell was inside the bit of the sub that was supposedly never recovered was apparently not lost on the Russians.
K-129 was supposedly sunk at N40E180, about 5 degrees south of where she was supposed to be. A free days after the sinking, a University of Hawaii research vessel apparently found an oil slick on the surface of the water near their research area, around Necker Reef according to Dr John P Craven. This was a factor used in suggestion that the sub had been lost in an attempted launch of a missile to look like a Chinese attack on Hawaii, in the book "Red Star Rogue". Interesting concept.
K-129 sank on 8th March 1968, and the presence of SOSUS records has been apparently shown in the Project Azorian video, (entertaining watching), and that gives time offsets purportedly for the recorded explosions... unfortunately, the offsets don't give a location anywhere near N40E180 or the N23W164 area that is the "rogue" location, which for the story has to be around 300nm +/- from... Honolulu.
Minor issues on the story is that the R/V Mahi a converted minesweeper was picked up by Dillingham Shipyard in March of 1968, and handed over to the university of Hawaii in June 1968 as their first R/V, chartered from Dillingham Maritime Services. I asked JP about this a few years before he died, and he was unable to give an answer as to why his reported statements of 2001 would differ from the official history of the vessel. Another vessel crops up later, the M/V Bel Hudson, which carrying cars from Yokohama to Long Beach on their normal GC track ended up with an medical emergency of their cook. Emergency assistance was provided by the medical team of the Glomar Explorer, while they were reportedly on station overhead the K-129. The logs of the Bel Hudson are stored in the UK in the maritime archives in Southampton I believe. The 2nd radioman recalled the event, and indicated no knowledge of the back story of the Glomar Explorer, or that their medical emergency had been part of the book on the recovery effort, which conveniently does support a 40N location more than a 23N one.
Old history, but still interesting, Red Star Rogue is fit for a Tom Clancy novel, but it also is not impossible, the facts don't line up completely for either location if the SOSUS time offsets are correct as portrayed, so the truth is out there.... maybe.