The Freedom Ship

[Safenj]

What do you think about the Freedom Ship? Here is their website address: http://www.freedomsh.../overview.shtml They call it a community that is on a mile long ship which travels slowly around the world and has everything a regular city has such as schools, hospitals, airport, ship ports, residences, vacationers, businesses, and a shopping mall. This is in the making now. They have well thought out plans and even offer the prices to purchase or share residences.

 

 

I copied and pasted the following for more information, "click on the URL site below to view the Freedom Ship Discovery Channel video clip. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8962310630082930010 ".

 

I have one issue to discuss. What will they do with the sewage? I'm sure there will be plenty. Thank you for comments and questions.

[CaptainPanic]

You have a very specific question: sewage treatment.

 

First of all, I think there are no laws preventing simply dumping it in the open ocean. If you're in international waters, you can do that. But there are other options.

 

Water treatment plants can be quite small, so fits to have one on board. Read this (search for "zenon") to see what cruise ships do with their water. Regardless of what they do with it, there will be a solid residue, which must either be offloaded onto another ship, or burned.

 

So, it's not much of a problem really.

[InigoMontoya]

I think they're going to run out of money long before they finish building their ship.

[insane_alien]

I think they're going to run out of money long before they finish start building their ship.

 

fixed

[Brainteaserfan]

What would happen if it got struck by lightning? I mean, what kind of damage might occur?

[Psycho]

What would happen if it got struck by lightning? I mean, what kind of damage might occur?

Nothing, it would have a lightning rod like any other ship.

[Brainteaserfan]

Nothing, it would have a lightning rod like any other ship.

Wouldn't it need quite a few of them? But, I think you are right that lightning wouldn't pose a threat (+1). Are there any dangers that people (in the general public) don't commonly think about when they see a large luxury ship?

[InigoMontoya]

I lived on a ship for 2 years... I don't recall us ever having anything special to deal with lightning. I think it boils down to that whole *steel* ship floating in a bathtub full of salt water makes for plenty of grounding paths (IE, the ship itself is one giant, very well grounded lightning rod.).

[Iggy]

I've never heard of this... interesting..

 

Like any community, it would only work if there is enough revenue generated by the community to support the community's infrastructure. It looks like the premise is that successful companies would move their operations and operators to the ship.

 

Given that the cost of operating the ship (airport, fuel, staff, education, healthcare, etc.) must be assumed by the passengers, and the cost is fantastically greater than an equal amount of space on the ground with the same facilities and amenities available, I can't imagine any incentive for companies (or any profit-generating enterprise) to move to a big ship.

 

The basic premise seems fundamentally flawed.

 

It might make sense if there were a huge tax incentive in locating a business in international waters. I can't think of how that would be the case...

[Phi for All]

I would think any benefits you gain in mobility and tax freedom would be completely offset by the extra maintenance costs of being at sea. Saltwater is hard on ships, and the bigger it is the more maintenance it will need.

 

After that, there's everything Iggy mentioned. Even with their expectations of tourism, I would think the 40,000 residents would need to be extremely focused in their commercial efforts to make something like this work.

 

I like the idea of setting the standard for the best K-12 education. There are some very interesting possibilities with a close-knit community that could be explored. I'm just leery about whether a humungous ship circumnavigating the globe is the best place for it.

[DrRocket]

This ought to amuse the Somali pirates.

[InigoMontoya]

the bigger it is the more maintenance it will need.

And the bigger it is, the more difficult some of that maintenance will be... Show me the dry dock that can accept a 5000 foot ship!

 

This ought to amuse the Somali pirates.

LOL. Maybe not. No way does this ship go through the Suez. As such, it likely never finds itself in their waters.

[Brainteaserfan]

And the bigger it is, the more difficult some of that maintenance will be... Show me the dry dock that can accept a 5000 foot ship!

I would suppose though that some of the maintenance would be cheaper proportional to the cost of the ship, due to that you would be purchasing labor and supplies in bulk.

[CaptainPanic]

I would think any benefits you gain in mobility and tax freedom would be completely offset by the extra maintenance costs of being at sea. Saltwater is hard on ships, and the bigger it is the more maintenance it will need.

 

After that, there's everything Iggy mentioned. Even with their expectations of tourism, I would think the 40,000 residents would need to be extremely focused in their commercial efforts to make something like this work.

 

I like the idea of setting the standard for the best K-12 education. There are some very interesting possibilities with a close-knit community that could be explored. I'm just leery about whether a humungous ship circumnavigating the globe is the best place for it.

You could say that the maintenance costs of the ship is tax. It can be paid with money or community service.

 

Compared to smaller ships, this ship has so much indoors, that the maintenance will not be affected much by the salt water. Sure, a 1 mile ship has a lot of hull to paint, but the outside area is a square function of the length of the ship, but volume is a third power... and the amount of people you can fit in a ship is related to the volume.

 

But there are a lot of other shared cost factors: waste disposal (which is the topic of the thread, may I remind you all), heating and/or cooling (i.e. fuel costs). And it might or might not include things like education and healthcare.

 

No way does this ship go through the Suez. As such, it likely never finds itself in their waters.

 

Good point. I wonder whether they will make the ship able to withstand all kinds of climates. To be able to go around the globe, they need to be able to go round the south points of Africa and South-America. It's quite something to be able to withstand cold winter storms (in the middle of the ocean!) and tropical heat as well. Insulation is a big factor for the investment costs, and airco and heating are a massive cost for the everyday running costs.

 

I don't understand why these guys don't just buy 10 old cruise ships, and go around the world with 10 villages instead of 1 town. Then they can try out the whole community thing without first also having to try to build this huge ship with untested technology.