Seafloor nodules? ROTFLMAO, that was a cover up of the CIA. They built a rescue ship in an attempt to recover a soviet nuke sub lost somewhere (cold war yanno <g>).
Huge superstructures, cranes, nets ... had to be sold to the public and there came the nodules.
If memory serves, Ballard (? spelling) was the so-called "entrepreneur". Ship still to be seen on National Geographic. Actually used for what it was built for.
I remember magazines with photos of the "nodules".
And if memory serves, they didn't recovered the sub.<ggg>