Quite conveniently, the yellow vessel had 'Ministry of Defence' and a telephone number printed on it, which was of course immediately called. What happened next became a legend. It was connected to the Royal Navy. 'I've found your yellow submarine,' said John. 'We haven't lost a yellow submarine,' said the Navy. Which was a strange response, as the evidence to the contrary was overwhelming.
John and Gordon loaded the submarine onto a lorry and drove it to a secret location in Port Ellen (actually the back garden of fellow fisherman Harold Hastie). The local paper was called, then the national ones, and the next day the red tops were full of pictures of the two friends astride the lethal-looking machine, carrying fishing rods, and asking: “Has anyone lost a yellow submarine?”
Hilarious unless you were from the data on Royal Navy, who eventually admitted it was theirs. HMS Blyth, the minesweeper that lost it, eventually came to pick it up, slipping into the dock at dawn to take it aboard. By then Bruichladdich had (of course) ordered another bottling, WMD2: The Yellow Submarine, and a case of precious liquid was kindly offered, and accepted by the captain as a gesture of goodwill.
A well-known and controversial NFL lateral pass occurred during the Music City Miracle game at the end of the 2000 playoff game between the Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills. The play was a true lateral (the ball was not moved forward or backward on the pass), but the receiver was one step ahead of the passer and would reach backward to catch the ball, thus giving the appearance of an illegal forward pass.