New Owner Charts Course for Sub’s 2nd Career

Is it a planter, a place for parking attendants to sit, or a rusting blimp?

Actually, the unusual vessel that was parked at the Dana Marina lot on West Mission Bay Drive on Thursday afternoon is a submarine.

The submarine had been in storage since it was acquired by Sea World several years ago, spokesman Jackie Hill said.

But Sea World ran out of room for it, and last week the sub went to a new owner.

The parking lot, near the California Cafe, was “as far as I got before the trailer I had proved inadequate,” said new owner Mike De Sure of Imperial Beach. “It was supposed to be moved today, but I’m still waiting for another trailer, so I don’t know if it’ll happen.”

The submarine, a 40-by-20-by-16-foot replica of the Navy’s Deep Quest submarine at Point Loma, was used as a prop in the movie “Raise the Titanic,” De Sure said.

The replica was built for the movie 10 years ago “at a cost of $500,000,” and is a “mock-up of a real, functional, deep-water submarine,” De Sure said.

“It doesn’t have radios and equipment like sophisticated electronics or high-tech locating apparatus, but it is seaworthy,” De Sure said. “Put side by side, you can’t tell the two apart.”

When a bigger trailer arrives, the submarine will be moved to a storage area in Chula Vista, De Sure said.

What does he plan to do with the rusting, off-white vessel?

“I’m not sure what I’m going to use it for yet, but I’m open to suggestions and so far I’ve got a list five miles long,” De Sure said. “ You wouldn’t believe the responses I’ve gotten. People have suggested everything from putting it back out on the water to making it into a submarine sandwich shop.

“I’d like to keep it in San Diego as some kind of display or even sell it to the Maritime Museum.”

The submarine needs to be repainted, but “the possibilities are endless, with a little imagination,” De Sure said.

Originally, Sea World officials considered displaying the vessel in the park, but decided against it, Hill said.

It was kept in storage for years, until the need for more storage space made it necessary to decide what to do with it, Hill said.

Last week, officials at Sea World finally decided. They asked De Sure, a free-lance shipwright, if he would take the submersible in lieu of payment for work he had done for them. “The vice president of Sea World contacted me, and one thing led to another,” De Sure said happily.

“I’m kind of excited. I’ve never had a submarine before. It’s unique. It’s definitely unique.”