The cache is placed across the highway from the USS Plainview, off the highway in a small turnout. Please do not block the road or park on the highway. You may walk across the highway to get a better view of the ship, but the ship itself is private property -- please do not attempt to access the location or enter the ship.
In December 1960, the US Navy commissioned a hydrofoil research ship to be designated the AGEH-1, a 50-knot hydrofoil with provision for future conversion to achieve speeds up to 90 knots. Its purpose was to provide the design for future Navy hydrofoil ships and to explore the utility of such ships for Anti-Submarine Warfare and other Navy missions.
On 26 October 1961, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation was awarded a contract for the design of AGEH-1, then in 1963, Puget Sound Bridge and Drydock Co. in Seattle was awarded the contract to build the ship, which was launched in June 1965. The ship had a length of 212 feet and an extreme beam with foils down of 70.8 feet. It attained speeds of over 50 knots from two General Electric LM-1500 gas turbine engines driving two supercavitating propellers. Two Packard diesel engines drove propellers for low-speed hullborne operations.
Unfortunately, soon after emerging from a program of deficiencies correction and returning to the trials program with many successful operations in its log, PLAINVIEW fell victim to the Congressional budget knife. She made her last foilborne flight on 17 July 1978 and without ever being tested to the limits of her rough water capability. The ship was officially inactivated on 22 September 1978 and towed to Bremerton WA. In May of 1979, the hull was sold to a private party for the sum of $128,000, with the understanding that the ship was to be converted for use as a fishing boat. This was either unsuccessful or was never attempted. The final indignity for this once proud and beautiful ship was being relegated to resting on a mud flat near Astoria Oregon.
excerpt from From Ships That Fly, by John R. Meyer, Jr.