We have been closely following events in Washington State where a contact style naval mine appeared in the channel off the western side of Bainbridge Island, not far from one of the Navy’s most important bases. You can read all our coverage from earlier today here. Last we checked the mine was being slowly towed away from Brownsville Marina and local residents living on the shore were told to shelter in place. At approximately 8:15pm local time, a Navy explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team detonated the in more open waters. Here is the video of explosion:
Although we don’t know the exact method used to destroy the mine, the weapon could have been a serious threat to ships in the area. What also isn’t clear just is where it came from.
As we noted in our previous post, mines dating even back to World War II have popped up far from their original deployment area. But some have noted that the mine appeared in fairly good condition for being that old. The Navy did note that it had decades worth of organic growth on it. Hopefully the close-up inspection of the mine done by Navy divers before it was towed away for disposal resulted in some clues as to its origin.
We also don’t know if the Navy plans of searching for similar mines in the area, but no minesweeping operation in the Puget Sound has been announced just yet.
Great job by the EOD team executing a flawless operation and awesome work by local media, especially KIRO7, who followed this bizarre event throughout the day.
We will keep this post updated as new information comes available.
Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com