Watch moment world’s weirdest ship deliberately SINKS itself & flips vertically to become futuristic ocean lab
THIS is the incredible moment the world’s weirdest ship deliberately capsized itself and flipped vertically to become a futuristic ocean lab.
FLIP, technically called the Floating Instrument Platform, was a pioneering research vessel operated for more than 50 years by the US Navy.
The unique 355-foot ship is able to turn 90 degrees when “flipped” at sea to provide a stable, mobile at-sea experimental laboratory.
Built in 1962 with funding from the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), FLIP helped generations of scientists and oceanographers better understand the mysteries of the sea.
This included internal waves, air-sea interaction and long-range sound propagation.
When horizontal, FLIP was towed out to sea where on-board hydraulics and ballast tanks flipped the platform – in about 30 minutes – to the vertical.
The experimental laboratory was capable of riding out swells while providing sensor data 300 feet into the water column.
FLIP could carry a research team of 11 people and a crew of five, and sustain research operations for up to 30 days without resupply.
Everything mounted on the platform turned 90 degrees when flipped at sea, including all fixtures – from generators to toilets – turning at right angles.
The incredible yet weird ship was decommissioned in August 2023 and towed to Mexico to be scrapped.
“Sadly, age and exorbitant life-extension costs resulted in the platform being disestablished,” the ONR said at the time.
But thanks to a Bristol-based firm, FLIP will no longer face impending destruction.
DEEP, a subsea design firm developing the next generation of underwater human habitats, said its staff was headed to Mexico to save the ship within 48 hours of hearing the news.
Giulio Maresca, who is now FLIP’s new captain, said: “The direction from our founder was quite clear.
“Save her. Don’t come back without her.”
The rescued platform has since made its way from Mexico, through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, where over the next 12-18 months it will be refitted and modernised in France.
Kristen Tertoole, CEO of DEEP, said: “FLIP is an iconic research platform – anyone in the maritime research or engineering communities knows about her, and many have a war story or two.
“We’re incredibly proud to confirm FLIP’s arrival in European waters.
“FLIP is from a time of bold engineering and optimism for our future and our oceans, an ethos DEEP shares and seeks to embody.
“Our mission is perhaps equally bold: to make humans aquatic by enabling our species to live, work and thrive underwater.”
The company says FLIP will play a key role in the DEEP fleet, providing a one-of-a-kind platform for ocean research and being capable of supporting their underwater Sentinel habitat deployments.
“We look forward to announcing her relaunch in early 2026, and I’m thrilled to confirm that many oceanographic and research groups are already in contact to ensure access,” the CEO added.