Update: Turtle Sub in the East Bay
Charles Johnson
Fri Aug 3, 2007 at 12:36 pm PDT • Views: 243
Odd-looking `submarine’ spotted near QM2.
The vessel turned out to be a replica of a Revolutionary War submarine. It wasn’t immediately clear what the men were doing with it.
A detective noticed the vessel, with one person inside, and an inflatable boat carrying two people, near a security zone around the luxury ocean liner docked at the cruise ship terminal on the East River in Brooklyn.
The brown, egg-shaped wooden vessel, known as a “turtle submarine,” is a replica of a submarine used during the American Revolution, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Angelia Rorison. It looks like a diving bell, with a hatch on top, and is about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. It is propelled by a pedal-operated paddle.
The Coast Guard issued two citations to Philip Riley, 35, of Brooklyn, who was inside the bobbing vessel, Rorison said. “Basically, the vessel was not safe to sail. It had no lights, no flares. It was not registered,” she said. “Instead of safety violations, this could have turned into a search and rescue.”
Frank says: