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The Boat Designed to Capsize

Written by Alan Bellows on 28 November 2005

The US Navy has a nifty oceangoing research ship which performs a controlled capsize in order to perform scientific tests. It’s called the FLoating Instrument Platform (FLIP), and it was conceived and developed by the Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.

FLIP is 355 feet long, and is technically not a ship, but rather a specialized, manned buoy with a 300 foot draft. When in horizontal traveling mode, the long, hollow ballast area trails behind. When it reaches the desired location, the “tail” is flooded until the nose sticks straight up into the air, taking about twenty-eight minutes to reach vertical position. Even in stormy conditions, it is as stable as a fencepost, because most of its length lies in the untroubled waters beneath the waves.

From the FLIP homepage:

During the flip, everyone stands on the outside decks. As FLIP flips, these decks slowly become bulkheads. (This is the name sailors use for walls.) The crew step onto decks that were, only moments before, bulkheads. Inside, decks have become bulkheads; bulkheads have become decks or overheads (ceilings).
Some of FLIP’s furnishings are built so they can rotate to a new position as FLIP flips. Other equipment must be unbolted and moved. Some things, like tables in the galley (kitchen) and sinks in the washroom, are built twice so one is always in the correct position.

FLIP was originally built to measure effects on the environment caused by long range sound propagation, but it has also been used for research in geophysics, meteorology, physical oceanography, non-acoustic anti-submarine warfare, and in laser propagation experiments.

Spotted on the Cynical-C blog.

FLIP homepage

Alan Bellows is the founder, designer, and managing editor of DamnInteresting.com, and he is perpetually behind schedule.


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#1 Brent 29 November 2005 at 09:55 am

I saw a piece on news/documentary piece on this some months ago. Quite spectacular to see do its thing–everything really does flip.

#2 cedricindra 09 December 2005 at 04:52 pm

A visit on this ship and the actual experience of the FLIP in “flip mode” would be a truly fascinating experience.

Can anyone fill me in on the “effects on the environment caused by long range sound propagation” ?

#3 AKALucifer 26 February 2006 at 06:33 am

Can anyone fill me in on the “effects on the environment caused by long range sound propagation” ?”

I think that the effect of soundwaves on the bottom of the sea. Some sounds are thought to create landslides under the water kinda like when people yell on a mountain-top and create a landslide or avalanche. I think some sounds also confuse some animals like dolphins who locate each other by “singing” underwater. If you saw that dolphin who came up the Themes in London they think it’s because he thought the sounds of the port were his other dolphin friends.

Why bulkheads? Thats not even an abbreviation. Also it seems to me some of the best minds of our generation are being wasted on thinking up witty acronyms.

#4 THoM 14 March 2006 at 10:44 pm

sorry to break it to ya dude, but bulkhead is a really old ass sailor term.

#5 godsgrandson 17 March 2006 at 02:42 am

It was a whale that came up the Thames.

#6 fatal retreat 07 September 2006 at 01:57 am

so you think they give tours of this ship?

#7 Drakvil 03 January 2007 at 01:20 am

I’ve seen a display on one of these at the Scripps marine institute museum in north San Deigo. I think the institute actually has one, or at least the use of one.

#8 rev.felix 05 April 2007 at 12:03 pm

THoM said: “sorry to break it to ya dude, but bulkhead is a really old ass sailor term.”

That still doesn’t answer the question of why they call it that. Maybe there’s a damn interesting story behind it?

#9 james 05 April 2007 at 03:32 pm

rev.felix said: “That still doesn’t answer the question of why they call it that. Maybe there’s a damn interesting story behind it?”

According to wiki.

The word bulki meant “cargo” in Old Norse. Sometime in the 15th century sailors and builders realized that walls within a vessel would prevent cargo from shifting during passage. In shipbuilding, any vertical panel was called a “head.” So walls installed abeam (side-to-side) in a vessel’s hull were called “bulkheads.” Now, by extension, the term applies to every vertical panel aboard a ship, except for the hull itself.

The term was later applied to other vehicles, such as trams, aircraft or spacecraft, as well as to containers, such as fuel tanks. In some of these cases bulkheads are airtight to prevent air leakage or the spread of a fire.

Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.

#10 Merciless 08 June 2007 at 12:21 pm

Damn that’s sweet. Talk about needing to “batten down the hatches.”

#11 Sacred Junk 29 July 2008 at 11:52 pm

Flooding the ship seems easy.. but how do they drain the water out?

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