I like Ships too

Pykrete

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Re-reading the beginning of this Lit Hall of Fame Thread, I sure do miss that funny fucker, Sonny.
 

It was a wonderful idea but completely impractical. The refrigeration plant necessary to create it would have used more essential materials, and cost more, than two or three conventional WW2 carriers.

We didn't have the capacity to build HMS Habbakkuk.

What we COULD have done was created as the Mulberry Harbours off Normandy. We could have built a CONCRETE aircraft carrier but the strains and stresses would have made it short-lived.

We didn't have enough concrete to build the Mulberry Harbours AND an aircraft carrier.

PS. In some experts' views, HMS Habbakkuk was only a scheme to deceive Nazi spymasters. The spies in the UK were controlled by us. Giving them details of a scheme like HMS Habbakkuk might convince the Nazis that their spies were effective. Nazi scientists might waste valuable effort trying to prove or disprove the effectiveness of Pycrete. On a small scale Pycrete worked.

PPS. Another deception plan still has resonance today. RAF night-fighter pilots were supposed to eat large quantities of carrots to improve their night vision. It was bullshit to explain their increasing successes - with the secret aircraft mounted Radar.
 
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In 1896 John Joseph Blackett (1875-1931) and his father, Ralph, established R. Blackett and Son Ltd., a Darlington-based brick manufacturer and builder. The company was responsible for building a number of Darlington landmarks, including the town’s first power station. When, however, towards the end of World War I the British government ordered 154 concrete hulled barges and tugs, due to a shortage of steel, John Joseph Blackett went into business with F. V. Nettleton to form Blackett’s Concrete Ships Ltd., based at Stockton and Thornaby-on-Tees. The business was incorporated in 1917, but the only two vessels built by them, both barges, were not launched until 1920, more than a year after hostilities had ceased. Orders for a further eight ships were cancelled and John Joseph Blackett reverted to brick manufacturing. One of the barges, however, the 744 ton Crete Joist, was sold to Norway in 1924. In 1942 she drifted onto rocks near Trondheim but did not sink, and the occupying German forces attempted to blow her up, without success. Many years later the Trondheim harbour authorities tried again, but failed to sink her. She still sits at Fevag, near Trondheim, in proud defiance of all that man and nature can inflict upon her.

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I've always thought this would be a good business venture:

The World is a private residential cruise ship serving as a residential community, owned by its residents who live on board as the ship travels the globe. It has 165 residences (106 apartments, 19 studio apartments, and 40 studios), all owned by the ship’s Residents who can decorate with their own furniture, art, books and personal touches. There’s a deli and supermarket onboard and six restaurants if you didn’t feel like doing the washing up in your own kitchen. Before I start sounding like a salesperson for the residential cruise ship, I’ll just let you check out their promotional video.

On the one hand, it does feel like it might be one big floating cult. On the other hand, it’s a globe-trekking luxury apartment. I’m so torn…

linky

The World promotional materials


You could put together a couple of hundred rich retirees and buy an old cruise ship and either sell shares or sell the staterooms condo-style
 
... We could have built a CONCRETE aircraft carrier but the strains and stresses would have made it short-lived.

At the time the US entered WW2, my Dad worked for Stanley Tools and was involved in 'tooling' new Shipyards on the Lake Washington Ship Canal (Seattle) who were building Coastal Minesweepers.

He saved paperwork and a proposal that crossed his desk regarding building reinforced concrete locomotives. As above, they were not built and probably would have been short-lived, plus their weight would have prohibitive on bridges.

This is a terrific thread.
 



The McCloskey Ships of The Second World War


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Just as steel had become scarce during the First World War, the Second World War was again consuming the country's steel resources. In 1942, the United States Maritime Commission contracted McCloskey and Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build a new fleet of 24 concrete ships. Three decades of improvements in concrete technology made this new fleet lighter and stronger than its WWI predecessors...


...In December 1948, nine McCloskey ships were partially sunk to form a ferry breakwater off the coast of Kiptopeke Beach, Virginia.
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http://www.concreteships.org/

 
Go to the google maps and plug in Kiptopeke Beach, Virginia and you can see the concrete ships
 
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