This is really old news, but it still feels game worthy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85o_OX3-_dI&t=18s
the Goeben and Breslau where two German ships stuck in the Mediterranean when World War I breaks out. They get sold to turkey, and rather than re-manning the ships with Turkish citizens, the sailors are given fezzes and Turkish uniforms: they are essentially sold with the boat. They then are given orders to violate the turkish neutrality by bombarding russia so that russia will declare war on turkey.
The legal gymnastics here are hilarious. My bet is this was someone's RPG group.