Howard Hughes: eccentric, rich, and unconventional. Think Elon Musk in flares; he was a man who truly liked to explore life. So, when he announced in 1972 that he was building a state-of-the-art ship to mine for manganese on the ocean floor, no one was very surprised.
The ship, known as the Hughes Glomar Explorer, was 618 feet long and featured state-of-the-art technology, including a massive grab claw that lowered from the vessel’s bottom to pick up manganese. It cost the equivalent of $4 billion to build in today’s money.
As the project progressed, actor Richard Anderson, famous for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, became involved, publicly showing off the ship’s technology.
Except that everything I have told you about the reason for building this ship was an elaborate lie constructed by the CIA.
