Vessel Memes

The RP/FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) is basically the marine research equivalent of that friend who can fall asleep anywhere. Horizontal? Vertical? Doesn't matter! This ship spent nearly 60 years defying conventional naval architecture by literally flipping 90 degrees to conduct research. Engineers designed this bizarre vessel to minimize the effects of wave motion for oceanographic measurements. While normal ships bob around like drunk ducks, FLIP would partially flood its rear compartments and stand upright like a giant middle finger to the laws of conventional shipbuilding. The interior was equally wild - with doors on both walls and floors, toilets mounted in multiple orientations, and sinks that rotated. It's what happens when scientists say "I want a ship, but make it weird." Marine research has never looked so dramatically extra!