Bizarre: Mini-Submarine Detained In Waters Outside New York City
August 3, 2007
Authorities are saying this has no connection to terrorism, but I had to post about it for two reasons: 1) It shows--again--how vulnerable our major cities are to attack. How the heck did these jokers even get in the water, let alone get close to the Queen Mary? 2) It's Friday, and this is just too much of an intriguingly weird story to ignore. Here's more, from WCBS in New York:
A strange-looking submarine, apparently modeled after a Revolutionary War vessel, was spotted Friday near the docked Queen Mary II, and NYPD Harbor and SCUBA units arrested three people for questioning.
The vessel, with one person inside, and an inflatable boat carrying two people, were spotted near a security zone around the luxury ocean liner docked at the cruise ship terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
It was not clear what the people were doing in the vessels, but police said there was no indication that the incident was related to terrorism.
The sub, piloted by 35-year-old Philip Rey, came within 100 feet of the luxury cruise liner.
A detective from the New York Police Department Intelligence Division noticed the vessels at around 10:30 a.m. and summoned the Harbor Unit.
The mysterious vessel was partly submerged and “appeared to be designed for underwater navigation,” the NYPD said in a statement.
The vessel appears to be a replica of the "Bushnell Turtle," the first American submarine, invented around 1775 in Connecticut by David Bushnell. The Revolutionary War era sub was designed as a naval weapon, and it was meant to drill into a ship's hull and plant a keg of powder, which would be detonated by a time fuse.
“All three males are expected to be charged with a number of violations and both vessels will be secured by the Harbor Unit,” the NYPD said.
Sing it with me: "We all live in a MIni-Submarine...."
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