The Hughes Glomar Explorer is a deep-sea research vessel built in the 1970s by the Howard Hughes company. Originally designed for mining manganese nodules from the ocean floor, it gained fame for its secretive mission to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, the K-129, from the Pacific Ocean. The ship features a unique design with a large, retractable claw system to lift heavy objects from the seabed. Although the recovery operation was partially successful, the project was shrouded in secrecy and has been the subject of much speculation and intrigue in the years since.