Aquatall II

Doctor Akase's ship, the Aquatall II (アクアトールII世 Akuatōru Nisei), is a highly advanced oceanographic research vessel. To deploy its submersible pod, the entire ship tips forward ninety degrees so that the pod can lower along its hull. What advantage this has is not clear, as it means the pod is limited to the height of the ship.

2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon
On the Aquatall II ' s maiden voyage, Okasai took Koji Onishi along as an observer. They took the ship out to the Black Pyramid to take a look at it. The ship successfully achieved a vertical orientation and the observation unit dropped beneath the waves. While they were still trying to pinpoint the Black Pyramid's exact location using sonar, the ship was attacked by Sky-Byte and Dark Scream, who'd assumed that the ship had come to spy on their operation as they tapped the Black Pyramid's Matrix Chamber. The damage caused the observation unit to lose communications with the main bridge, and the ship was unable to return to its usual horizontal state. Luckily, Koji happened to be friends with the Autobots. He called in Optimus Prime and the Autobot Brothers, who battled the two Predacons. While Optimus kept Sky-Byte busy, X-Brawn repaired the Aquatall II, and Prowl gave it a push to set it back on its hull.