By LOGAN HAWKES The USS Ortolan (ASR-22) is all but a memory now, undergoing the last days of disassembly at the shipbreaking yards of Esco Marine at the Port of Brownsville. But the former Naval submarine rescue ship may shroud many Cold War mysteries; classified military missions that will die when the last shards of scrap metal are sold for recycling. The unique, twin-hulled submarine rescue ship was laid down in August of 1968 by the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile, Alabama, and launched in September the following year. She was the second and last and most sophisticated of the Navy’s special vessels designed to respond to submarine emergencies. At least that was the public description of her naval missions. Equipped to accommodate two deep submergence rescue vehicles, or DSRVs, the ORTOLAN was the second seagoing catamaran warship built for the Navy since Robert Fulton’s twin-hulled steam warship FULTON was built at the close of the War of 1812. The specially designed submersible DSRVs would attach themselves to the belly of the Ortolan, which would then serve as the “Mother Ship”, or command platform for the submersibles’ missions. The Deep Submergence System Project was established in June 1965 in the aftermath of the loss of USS Thresher in 1963. The idea was to have a vessel that could respond to submarine accidents at great depths. At the time, submarine operating depths greatly exceeded the capabilities of rescue vessels. Lockheed Missiles & Space was contracted to produce a deep diving rescue submarine, the first of which was launched in 1970. While it has been alleged that the stated goal of the DSRV project was unrealistic, and that it was a front for research on undersea espionage, including cable tapping, the DSRVs did demonstrate rescue capability, and have conducted numerous practice rescue missions. But shrouded by classified mission parameters, rumors have it that these hi-tech submersible vessels also played a major role in Cold War espionage efforts. Designed to withstand enormous deep water pressures, the vessels were the only known submarines that could venture deep enough to reach deep sea communication cables – vital links of foreign governments who used such cables to execute their fleets across the oceans of the world. While little is known about these highly classified underwater work stations, they did make their way into popular works of fiction. The DSRV was portrayed in the 1978 movie Gray Lady Down, where it was used to rescue the crew of a sunken submarine. Both of the Navy’s DSRVs were featured in Tom Clancy's book, The Hunt for Red October, as part of a scheme to seize a defecting Soviet submarine in the film adaptation. One of these vessels, the DSRV Mystic, was featured in the pilot of the 2005 NBC TV series Surface. One of the main characters takes the sub down to the ocean floor to study a newly discovered life-form. It also plays a role as a rescue vehicle for Danish submariners in the game Sub Command under the mission "Save The Danes". Little is known about the actual and classified missions of the Ortolan. And now that the ship is being dismantled and sold for scrap, chances are good her secrets will die with her.