This is a poor picture of the MHS-1 (Mine Hunter SWATH 1). I was part of the original crew and helped to outfit her with the latest side scan sonar, ROV's and navigation equipment available at the time. She made her home at EODMU 7 in San Diego. The unit now has two boats.
A couple of things made this vessel special. The SWATH technology made the boat stable in very high sea states. She was computer controlled with fins and cunnards along the submarine shaped lower hull
You can read a paper here written in part by my skipper Wayne Neely. It was exciting for me because I have always been enamored with technology. At the time this vessel was cutting edge.
It was also built in record time with a shortened procurement process. This allowed the Navy to take advantage of COTS (commercial off the shelf technology) and we got our gear in near record time. (2 years from concept to hitting the beach).
Although my rate is misidentified in this article you can read about a cruise we made in 2000 in which we lifted the MHS-1 onto the Mt. Vernon and took her all over Southeast Asia.
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Fiberglass or wood hull? Aluminum? It wasn't metal, was it? Did you have many problems with cracks developing between the two hulls?
When I worked in the shipyards we built four tankers based on a SWATH design so as to be able to "crew" them to tugboat versus tanker standards (another rule-beater). They were huge, though, over 1,000 ft long and the twin hulls sat atop a "tongue" from a barge and clamped them together (like the Star Trek Next Generation Saucer-section).
The stresses were too much in the design though... they were forever trying to weld-repair the cracks.
Aluminum, very small signature for a mine because the only part in the water was the cunnards/fins and the twin hulls
Most minelayers will not want to waste a mine on a ship this size they'll be wanting to hit a capital ship
As far as I am aware we had no problems with welds
It was small 40'
the cabin could also be removed and the boat sent on a C-5
MU 7 did this at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan when a B-1 bomber went down in the Indian Ocean
they airlifted the boat to Diego Garcia
You ever come across any of those ex-Soviet super-rapid rising mines? They're merchant ships used to carry mines so that they could drop them in a neutral harbor at a moments notice.
All we ever carried on ours were bathythermographs... to send to Scripts Institute so they could map out the "layer" for our subs... not that anyone would use normal shipping lanes during a war.
did you use the disposable bathys?
I've only seen videos. I believe and I could be very wrong here that those mines are used in deeper waters.
Our unit was specifically for very shallow water (NSCT-1) and while I was at EODMU 7 we were limited to about 200 give or take. Mostly due to the length of our tow cable and our specific AOR.
Yes, we dropped XBT's twice a day. The storage containers doubled as our beer cooler... it was like a styrofoam ice-cooler.
Sounds like you handled the dangerous stuff. Noisy and varied environment. And tides... I used to SCUBA dive on the West Coast... I hated the "wave/ surge action" even on the bottom. And kelp, don't even get me started.
I could tell you a couple of sea stories with just the kelp alone. There is a company in Sand Diego that harvests the kelp. I believe it can grow as much as 24 inches in a single day.
It's can be near impossible to find things in a kelp bed. The beds mask objects that can be on the ocean bottom. Guess where we did most of our training?
I believe that was a very good use for those storage containers.
During the summer I believe the kelp could shot up at 36' per day, absolutely insane!
I also belive you could lose about anything in a kelp forest, some of the denizens were to be recond with!
Sea lions are not nice!
tmw
I hate them sea lions. Especially when you're trying to fish and they're eating all your bait. I know now why fishermen shoot them things.
The teeth aren't there for show, either. And when a critter outweighs you...Santa Cruz pier has them resting on the struts and walkways underneath the pier itself, and they are; smelly, bad-tempered, aggressive and you can't hear yourself think they are so loud!
The elephant seals at Ano Nuevo Park are the same, the stench will knock you back!
That's one thing the nature documentaries rarely touch on, the SMELL! Absolutely awful!
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!
tmw
As an ex-abalone diver and clam digger I can attest to the fur-seal over population problem plaguing the West Coast.
Abalone was $10 per/lb in my day. I doubt you'll even find it on many restaurant menu's anymore...
I recently purchased MHS-3 (sistership to MHS-1) surplus from the Navy. She now goes by the name R/V Pricus and is gearing up for hydrographic survey work supporting offshore wind farm development in the northeast. Really neat boat! Would love to learn more about your experience with MHS-1.
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