City At Sea: Plans For The World’s Largest Ship

By admin in Amazing on November 24th, 2006

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Freedom will dwarf the Queen Elizabeth II and become a permanent home for 50,000 people.

“Freedom will be large enough to bring on more than 50,000 residents, 15,000 employees, 20,000 day guests and still have four times as much roaming-around square footage per person as the most modern cruise liners,” Nixon says during POPULAR

MECHANICS’ visit to see how his ambitious plan is progressing. Taller than the highest buildings in most American cities and topped with a runway that can handle jets, Freedom may someday be the globe-trotting address for 17,000 homes and 4000 businesses. Its dimensions are so colossal that it will have to be assembled at sea. Once it’s built, Freedom will circle the earth every two years, following the balmy breezes as it approaches the world’s major ports. The wealthiest of her “citizens” will leave their 15-ft. by 80-ft. ocean-view apartments and board their private jets or yachts for jaunts to shore. Meanwhile, the 15,000 people who work aboard the ship will gear up for the next on-rush of day visitors anxious to shop at its duty-free stores and guests checking in to vacation in its hotels and time-share condominiums.

As might be expected, this plan for a ship capable of carrying as many as 115,000 people The reason is not simply a matter of Freedom’s proposed 4320-ft. length, which is nearly five times that of the currently largest cruise ship, Carnival Cruise Line’s 900-ft. Destiny , but the enormity of its mass. When naval architects compare ships, they speak in terms of tonnage rather than length. The Destiny displaces 100,000 tons of water. The largest vessel afloat, the supertanker Jahre Viking, displaces 564,739 tons. Freedom will displace 2.7 million tons.

Nixon says that while there are many factors that determine a beam’s maximum length, a steel beam can reasonably be expected to span a distance 15 times its height. “A ship with an effective depth of 80 ft. of hull [measured from keel to main deck] can theoretically span a maximum of 1200 ft.,” Nixon says. “On Freedom, the effective beam runs 350 ft., from the bottom of the ship to the aircraft runway.” The result is a 4320-ft.-long floating beam that draws 37 ft. of water as it rides atop waves, rather than plowing through them.

Once under way, life aboard Freedom will be more like living in a bustling city than being on a vacation cruise. Because of its size, the ship will have its own railway system. Courtyards set about its decks will create interior park and recreation areas. Nixon has calculated that the resident population can support its own local economy, which means that residents will, in many cases, also be operating businesses at sea, in malls throughout the length of the ship.

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21 Comments

  1. This is out of a Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt) novel.

  2. Where do i sign up?

  3. You will never see this built. Its a artists randition more than anything. If they were going to build this they would have had real plans for us to view!

  4. This looks like such a fun idea! Can you imagine 85,000 people all sick with the norwalk virus at the same time?

  5. I’m curious as to whether it’ll be able to withstand a tsunami!!!

  6. Brian Timmins
    11/26/2006 at 11:51 am

    I have heard of some really stupid ideas in my life, but this makes most of them seem sensible. Disregarding the possible life loss in the event of a disaster would anyone care to work out the carbon footprint of this insane scheme.

    Brian, Penzance, UK

  7. I would say this is possible, as our advancement in architectural and technological design has been proven through various mediums in UAE/Dubai, China/Hong Kong, and Germany. It may take quite a long time before they can actually build up the foundations of such a collosal structure, but it is possible.

  8. Why? How on Earth is this an improvement over anything?

  9. Like the Titanic, WHERES THE LIFERAFTS? lol Are we going to try to outsmart reality again?

  10. Native Trash
    11/26/2006 at 2:34 pm

    only takes one bomb to sink 115,000 people

  11. It won’t fit through Suez or Panama and its going to go around the world in two years? Fun times in the South Atlantic!!

  12. It’s going to look like a larger version of the titanic! how sad.

  13. fuk you u silly tart!!!! lol whore piece of crap n get a life

  14. floating jail

  15. I hope there is enough whisky to keep this ship stocked! They’ll need it!

  16. Too impractical is an understatement. I believe there is a futurist Jacque Fresco that has an idea to have individual crafts that can dock to each other to form a ‘city’ but can go their separate ways. Way more practical and potentially as large. Here’s a link but search for more info in him…pretty interesting IMHO.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc7×79kJ1S0

  17. As another mariner, I have to agree with Druken Sailor. This thing would have major issues and would be a large death trap. I wouldn’t want to even think about if it encountered rough weather which would eventually happen. During a big stormm it would probably be a total loss, the stresses it would see from large waves would be mind boggling

  18. THIS FLOATING BARGE IS SUCH A STUPID IDEA THAT I CANT EVEN PICTURE OR IMAGINE ANYBODY MAKING A COMMENT ABOUT IT OR DEVOTING ANY TIME TO DISCUSS THE PROS AND CONS OF IT OR EVEN SUBMITTING AN OPINION ON IT. I GUESS A LOT OF PEOPLE DONT HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO?

  19. a basic knowledge about structural engineering, propulsion, security at sea, or common sence will tell you how silly this idea is

  20. we should fill it with niggers not just black ppl i mean the scum of the gettos like gang members
    drug dealers thieves and all the scurge of the planet and let em fight it out and who ever wins
    we kill em off on the ship hahahaha that would be cool

  21. yeh and we will make shure your the first dumb shit on board you chain smoking no life bad caus its cool peice of shit