Unexploded mine reported drifting near Puget Sound

BROWNSVILLE, Wash. — Multiple agencies responded to what the Navy called an "unidentified mine" found drifting in the water Tuesday afternoon between Brownsville Marina and Bainbridge Island west of Seattle.

"It looks just like a World War II mine," said Tom Parks, a retired Navy master chief who snapped pictures as the corroded object bobbed by his Brownsville home.

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Well this is weird. A WW2 era mine floating near the Puget Sound? WTF? It also kind of looks like that UFO that was reported hovering over a neighborhood not too long ago.

It’s hard to believe a WW2 mine is still just floating around in the Puget Sound after all these years.

a reply to: underwerks

navval mines -- of that type - were anchored to the sea-bed via a ballast block and chain - despite " best efforts " - every mine in evvery minefeild was not recovered /// destroyed after WWII

fast forward 73 years - the anchor chain corrodes and snaps - and the mmine floats to the surface - and starts to drift

this mine may not evven have been laid in the area its now drifting in

PS - scores more " lost mines " will havve lost thier bouancy and simpply sunk to the seabed

Explosive story if anybody hit it.

💫

sea mines are still around from ww2. my understanding is that they are still cleaning up the minefields around Corregidor. the reality is that sea mines of various types have been used throughout the 1900's (as well as before). by pretty much everyone. they were used in the Japanese/Russian war in the early 1900's, and of course ww1, ww2, the Korean war and even in the Iran/Iraqi war. pretty much every war that had a naval component, sea mines have been used. now nowhere near all of these mines were even attempted to be cleared, just from the known placed minefields. basically they just cleared mines from areas they wanted to use like harbours and such. and just leaving the rest. (they only spent about 30 years doing so with about 500 ships damaged or destroyed). and that is just the known placed minefields, which would be the ones placed defensively. but on top of that everyone also placed mines offensively, and not all (and probably most) locations were never well marked and possibly even known about. especially if those planting them covertly had been sunk, or shot down.

now many mines used were anchored to the bottom, so that they would not be seen floating arround. some were even to be set off by remote control when a tempting target was going overhead. after time many of those mines either sink, or the cables/chains rust and part freeing the mines to float arround. yet on top of thet there were even mines that were never anchored to the bottom, and have always been floating arround to take out unsuspecting shipping. and thus no one has a clue as to where they have pretty much ever been. i bet if you look in those garbage patches that are being talked about so much, you will find some mines mixed in with the rest of the garbage. and the big problem with old mines, just like with any other munition is that the charges in them could have been desroyed makeing them harmless in all that time. or of course making the charges unstable and libal to go off at any time.

The part where the anchor chain corrodes is wrong.
Mines use a steel cable to anchor them.

Contact mines were used in the Pacific in both WW2 and the Korean war by the north.

My guess its not a mine but something like a mooring buoy and the overgrowth makes it look like a mine or its a joke by some one. or its a old practice mine left over from training.

Back in the 1970 the navy was called out for a few reported WW2 mines every year but we never found any.

I spent 4 years in the US Navy as mine sweep electrician and have sweep live mine fields.
Wooden Ships and Rusty Crusty Iron Men. USS Enhance MSO 437 Operation End Sweep Haiphong Harbor sweep detail.

a reply to: ANNED

It always interests me when WW2 stuff is found or turns up. Especially something as crazy as a floating mine.

One of my first thoughts was that maybe it was a prank, an old deactivated mine someone floated out into the sound or fell off a boat.

Whatever the case, they wired it up and blew it to pieces.

I did a quick search trying to identify that mine and failed. But I did run across an interesting/humorous quote. From the popular science blog .

There’s a line in the mine warfare community twisted from the United Negro College Fund slogan and gets (over) used all the time:
“A mine is a terrible thing that waits.”

Link

originally posted by: underwerks
a reply to: ANNED

It always interests me when WW2 stuff is found or turns up. Especially something as crazy as a floating mine.

One of my first thoughts was that maybe it was a prank, an old deactivated mine someone floated out into the sound or fell off a boat.

Whatever the case, they wired it up and blew it to pieces.

i have seen real mines blowup and the explosion was not big enough and from that it look like the charge planted on the mine is the only thing that went off.

And there was not enough sea growth on the mine to be from WW2.

I looked up navel mines of the US and japan and none matched what was found.

The Hertz horns did not match any type listed or were the wrong number or placement.

I believe it maybe a US practice mine because it had a open hole in the top for a flare

Very exciting stuff for those who respond to such.

I hope everyone stay's safe out there.

a reply to: ANNED

Right on. So it probably wasn’t a live mine then. That makes more sense. Probably something that fell off of a boat, or maybe someone’s homemade mine-fish trap or something like that.

It seemed really weird to me that a mine from that long ago would still just be bobbing around off the coast somewhere.