https://newatlas.com/marine/flipping-flip-ship-saved/
'The US Navy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography's unique FLoating
Instrument Platform (FLIP) has been saved at the last minute from the breaker's
yard. Scheduled to be scrapped in Mexico, it was purchased by undersea design
company DEEP.
One of, if not the, most unusual ships ever built, FLIP looks like a giant gray
stalk of steel asparagus with a conventional ship's bow slapped onto the narrow
end. It was originally built by the US Navy to help in the development of its
UUM-44 SUBROC (SUBmarine ROCket) anti-submarine weapon.
This required gathering underwater acoustic data from many different depths
simultaneously and the solution was a barge that displaced 700 gross tonnes and
measured 355 ft (108 m) long with a 26-ft (8-m) beam. Along its length were
strung a system of hydrophones and other sensors. Once towed into place,
ballast tanks at one end flooded and FLIP, well, flipped. The result was a
highly stable platform that stretched down a record-breaking 300 ft (91 m).
This bizarre-looking craft that more than once caused a false alarm about a
ship sinking became an extremely valuable floating laboratory from its
commissioning in 1962 until it was decommissioned in 2023.
That's where the story should have ended as FLIP was towed to Mexico to be
broken up and converted into so many teaspoons, but that all changed recently
when DEEP founder and CEO Kristen Tertoole learned of the scrapping and put
together a team to secure the barge, telling them, "Save her. Don't come back
without her."
Several months later, FLIP was secured by DEEP and saved from the cutting
torch. According to the company, the vessel has been towed through the Panama
Canal and across the Atlantic Ocean to the MB92 shipyard in La Ciotat, France,
where it is undergoing renovation and modernization over the next 12 to 18
months.'
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
