06 September 2007

Titanic II -- This Time the Iceberg IS the Ship

Habbakuk.

A funny-sounding name for a funny idea. At the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, the British were willing to listen to any new idea that promised to make their convoys safe. Enter Geoffrey Pyke, with his idea to build a massive ship out of ice. The full design was to be a 2,000 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 2 million ton aircraft carrier with a hull 40 feet thick. The hull itself was a mixture of ice and sawdust, dubbed 'Pykrete' after its creator.

Alas for the future of Britania's iceberg-navy, the demand for so much sawdust would have been a drain on wartime paper production and the idea was shelved. The farthest it got was a 30 X 60 foot test bed floating in Patrica Lake in Alberta, Canada.

"Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days-- You would not believe if you were told." (Habakkuk 1:5)

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