No one knew where this US Navy boat disappeared to. A year later it was found 3,300 miles from home in Ireland

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Doolin Ferry Co.’s Doolin Express crew were en route to Inis Oirr, a small Aran island near Galway Bay, Ireland on Monday when they said they saw a bright orange object in the water.

Once crew members got closer they said they found an abandoned boat and towed it back to shore to take a closer look, the ferry company wrote on their website. That’s when they said they saw the boat had its two engines still attached, but with the number of barnacles on the boat’s sides, they could tell it had been in the water for a long period of time.

A feeling of fear set over Tom Noel, Captain of the Doolin Express when he first saw the boat because he said he wasn’t sure if there were people on board and in need of help.

“Then once we got closer and could see the amount of growth on it I knew it was a long time in the water and that it was only a danger to navigation so I notified the Coastguard of its position,” he said.

Doolin Ferry Co. was able to find out where the boat had come from the boat’s manufacturer, Silver Ships, based out of Alabama.

CNN reached out Silver Ships for comment but has not heard back.

Intrigued, the ferry company took to social media Tuesday with their discovery. Several theories were posted in the comments section of the ferry company’s Facebook post.

The unmanned vessel was lost 75 miles off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia during a missile test and evaluation exercise last September, Timothy Boulay of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Maryland told CNN in an email.

So how did the boat survive over 3,300 miles across the Atlantic Ocean? The foam-filled boats were designed not to sink, Boulay said.

This is the second time in 15 years that a boat has gone missing at sea, according to Boulay. He said the first was eventually found in the Dominican Republic.

“Our Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations team followed their established procedures, searched for the unmanned vessel for five hours, and then notified the US Coast Guard regarding the hazard to navigation,” Boulay said.