ACTUAL submarine!!!

WELL

OKAY

I KNOW

We were all like “is that what we THINK it is??”

I have questions

I wish I had answers!

Here is the view from work before I decided to take my lunch break and get a closer picture

I don't think that's a submarine.

The color suggests it's a lifeboat.

Oh!!! That makes so much more sense

Ah, there we go! So it seems that's a lifeboat of a variety used on oil platforms. And a quick search reveals that the "Safe Britannia" (written at the front there) is an oil platform!

...but uh... even knowing what it is, the question remains of why does this guy have a life boat from a Singaporean oil platform?

I had found the oil platform! I just kind of... assumed they required submarines for maintenance or something. Again, life boat makes more sense!

Huh. Yeah, needing some sort of submersible for maintenance would make sense.

And that is a very good question. We ARE off of a major interstate that eventually leads to the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe it’s going to be towed down there?

Could be! Though I wonder if you can buy decommissioned or disused life boats for personal use...?

I wouldn’t be surprised! And we do have quite a few bodies of water in the area, including a deep man made lake

And it DOES seem to be an older model, looking at the other pictures of lifeboats online

Think it's an old discarded model they upgraded from?

Probably!

Huh! Okay, I have a friend who knows a lot about maritime law: So this actually is something that happens. You do need to change some of the markings but otherwise it doesn't take much to make it legal to own and operate one; the necessary changes were probably made by the time the new owner received it.

At first I'd wondered if it might make things confusing having that thing out in the water, but thinking about, it's probably missing some emergency transponder or another inside that would identify it as an active lifeboat.

Still! That's a pretty cool thing to see.

Ooh, that is neat!

That's super neat!! And I have SO MANY MORE QUESTIONS now that Prof has given us info

like

what brought this person to owning this. I am fascinated.,

I can't believe I'm about to google how much an old life boat costs

But I wonder how it compares to a more 'typical' boat. Maybe it's just a good deal?

Liv's parents are considering buying an old tug boat so

a lot

then again boats are just A Lot to me in general LOL

Yeeeaaah, keeping boats up can be pricey, too. Although! Considering how water tight these things are

Maybe lifeboats require less upkeep than regular boats? (I say as if any have any clue, lol)

Huh, apparently you can get lifeboat and lifeboat accessories on auction: Used Lifeboats For Sale in Online Surplus Auctions |...

the questions continue to pile up....

oh wild