The S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. More likely to be built than the Freedom Ship.
Posted on 01/04/2002 6:51:07 AM PST by finnman69
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:32:01 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
NEW YORK
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
AB
Which is the world's second largest? The smallest? The first? etc...
Or, is this one all of those?
Some questions.
1.) Will this ship like a condo/co-op/time-share or homeowners association?
2.) Whose civil and criminal laws will apply?
3.) How much of the ship will be set aside for producing drinkable water?
4.) How much of the ship will be set aside for waste treament facilities? Low rent district?
Unlike a real city, a few well-trained boarders could take her over.
Just looking at it, it's far too top-heavy and too narrow to be able to sail in anything more than flat seas & light winds.
The only one that could be considered a success was Sealand, and that had only about three citizens who took over an abandoned anti-aircraft platform near the UK and dubbed it a nation. Since it had about 1,100 square feet of living accomodations, roughly the same as a small house, it wasn't much of a country, so it could be safely ignored by the powers that be.
The most similar situation to this was L Ron Hubbard's Apollo, which roamed the seas in search of converts to his notorious Church of Scientology. He was run out of every country he visited, primarily because he tried to forment a Scientology revolution in most of them. This is surely precedent for others to be suspicious of anything even vaguely similar.
Finally, while it may have a middle class, I wonder about its lower class - the people who empty the wastebaskets and so on. How are they provided for? And what kind of economy will spring up?
It's a fascinating experiment. But I'd be surprised if it is ever successfully launched.
D
If a British subject can prove he's been out of their nation for a set number of days a year (more than 180, I believe), they pay NO UK TAXES.
A floating off-shore residence starts to makes sense *financially* to those blokes.
5) The homeless?
Re icebergs- if those are such a threat, why aren't they sinking ships now? Gosh, I don't know...radar?
Re cape horn- if the weather is such a threat, why aren't ships breaking up right now?
Re a couple of boarders could take it over- well, given that the article mentions a a security force of 2,000, that seems unlikely.
Re: 20 foot waves in the north atlantic- anybody here a naval architect w/professional knowledge of the relationship between beam-length ratios, DWD, and sea keeping? I don't either, but then I'm not speculating about something I'm completely ignorant about...
This whole thing may be a cmoplete scam-I have no idea about the actual practicality of the project, either in terms of the technology or the business plan- but based on the comments I've seen, neither do a lot of the folks commenting.
You don't get on unless you have a bonifide account with lots of bucks/euros(?) in it. Go below a limit, then you get to play SURVIVOR in mid-ocean.
For menial level workers, genetically engineer chimpanzes.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. More likely to be built than the Freedom Ship.
With a flat bottom and that top profile, that baby's got some real windage problems. She'll also be constantly creeping sideways--in fact, all over the place if she's in any kind of seas/wind--until she broaches and over she goes--or one good gust broadside, even on flat seas, will do it. I don't think it'll take much to have her go over. I didn't see much about her underwater profile except the flat bottom, but without something biting deep into the sea, it's not going to be sailable. There aren't rudders deep enough or engines big enough to keep her stable, if that's all they're using to keep the ship stable--and having bow thrusters isn't going to keep this boat from stability because it's too top-heavy. With that much steel in her, it's a straight trip to the bottom once she starts going down. Did they think they'd be able to dazzle people by telling them what the displacement is and comparing it to a tanker without telling people what the obvious design flaws were?
I think some of my hubby's boat design & boatbuilding obsession is rubbing off my me (we're building our 2nd catamaran). He'll be so proud.
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