"Freedom Ship"
 

The Freedom Ship

So, a friend mentioned hearing about this on the news a few weeks ago, and I just now got around to inquiring about it.

I'd post information more than just a link, I know that's kosher, but in this case, there's too much to post and it's all really engrossing.

Essentially, the concept is to build this gigantic floating city, somewhere in the vicity of 4 times as large as the biggest cruise ships, and make it an actual bit of real estate, albeit a moving one. (It gets a bit pricey, too. The largest living area will be 5100 Sq. feet and cost about $9,000,000 dollars. Even timeshares on the ship cost about $60,000.) It will have a bunch of nifty amenities, will circle the globe once every three years, and have a full school system, K-12, as well as college education.

The website is a bit vague about how far along construction is, if it has even begun, but they state that it should be launched by 2005.

I initially looked through the website laughing at what a wasteful, unsound, and ultimately phallically compensatory venture it was, and while I still think of it as being pretty superfluous, I am rather intrigued by the whole thing.

Thoughts?

I saw something on National Geographic about this a while back. It seems like a lofty idea and I just don't know how many people would really sign up for it. I know I wouldn't. Sure I don't like people but if I wanted to really connect I'd want to be on land. Plus what happens if some dude goes all psycho and starts killin people? Are they going to have a jail on it?

except for the part that there would be kids on board -- and it's cost prohibitive (spend that kind of money I want kid free) it's be cool... I wonder what portion of it wouldbe Section 8 housing?

There are a lot of cruise ships that have people who will stay on board for more than a year... personally that'd get a little tiresome to me... but to each their own - I suppose it's a nice way to spend retirement.

I dunno, it could be really cool.

The laws of it could be interesting too.

I would worry about weather and other things... if a typhoon hit it, what would happen?

I'd like to keep an eye on it.

I've always thought: "Can I just build a really big boat, and create my own country?"

Not sure if you could build a boat - but some guy a while back, in the north atlantic I think, bought an old oil platform and made it his own country... (I'll google it when i am out of my next meeting) it is actually a pretty cool concept - though i'd want to be somewhere warmer..

It's a fantastic idea - I just finished reading Neil Stephenson's 'Snow Crash' and think that a real life floating city would be an incredible feat of engineering. If it could be made safe and economically viable, it could be the beginning of a huge shift in how our populations organise themselves.

To those who wonder what would happen when a typhoon comes, I guess they'd do the same things that people in the Carribean and Florida do when a hurruicane comes.

And crazy psychos, prisons etc - yes of course, you're going to have to provide the same things that any small town is going to need - people's basic requirements aren't going to change just because they're on open water.

Wasn't there another ship that was doing this already? I think it was called "The World" or something like that... I remember seeing a sales brochure for it.

I think it would be very cool to work on the ship or own a store on the ship...

arghhh Pirate justice... you'd be on the seven seas (well at least one of them) they'd have to walk the plank, matey..

And damn, that could be one hell of a tall jump off the plank.

Maybe everybody on board gets a complimentary cutlass, eye patch, and saucy wench.

: Does Jaunty Pirate Jig:

The thing looks like 2 aircraft carrier stacked on the top of each other that's designed to house prisoners.

hey you might be on to something there, would be a great way to house all the convicts now, a big ship (think floating tin can) filled with all the worst criminals anchored out in the atlantic. and if it sunk...well we can always build again. :thumbsup:


I've seen this ship before, they had a special on the discovery channel, crazy idea, not sure it would be a place I would like to live. Same sorta idea as the mega cities I've seen on discovery channel, huge 2 mile high towers holding entire cities. I could see japan doing something like this to expand land mass, but wow that would take alot of materials to build. Plus i get sea sick :crazy:

Sounds like a really cool pipe dream.

A big target too.

I just recently saw an update on this story - apparently, they are pretty much set for construction, once they get the funding. All the engineering details have been supposedly worked out.

The price tag, however, is supposed to be lower than expected, as they are going to design it much differently than conventional ships - it will be built more like the floating airport off the coast of japan. An unfortunate side affect is that it will be much slower than they had originally hoped, with the ability to circle the globe once every seven or so years.

The thing is MASSIVE, though... "height of 4,500 feet, a width of 750 feet, and a height of 350 feet"

It'll be interesting to see if this ever turns out, but I think that it may be just a pipe dream...

Ok so i admit I'm pretty much geographically challenged... but what route would they take to get it to go around the world, that it would fit everywhere... and the ferry's that they plan on running to shore... wouldn't they have to be pretty far out to sea so it wouldn't run aground?

Plenty of ocean to go around. I don't think there's a place that would stop that thing, though it would have to go around South America and Africa (I don't think they'd be willing to choose the colder northern route, and you can forget the Panama and Suez canals, too). I wonder how are they planning to protect against icebergs? It's not like that ship will be very mano...mnu..m... easy to turn, is it?

Still, a neat idea.

They had the route it takes on the site:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...len/voyage.jpg

that's kind of a cool trip

The FAQ page is interesting -

It would be really interesting to see how they would plan on powering this thing... electricity for the boat itself, plus engines to get it to move... Water powered? How would they refuel it/

I'd still like to see it...

Doesn't most American nuclear warship require refueling every few years or so? I would suspect that the same concept could be applied for Freedom.

I suspect that a lot of people would be uneasy living in a floating skyscraper on top of a nuclear reactor.

Just to give everybody an idea of how big this thing is.

Use the aircraft as size references
http://download77.com/freedomship/ga.../elevation.jpg

Can anyone say Titanic?


Other things aside, what's to stop some group of people to essentially pirate this ship? Is there going to be decent, well armed and trained security forces on board? Seems like a pretty good target for someone to board and pillage since they will be in international waters, plus there will likely be mostly wealthy people on board.

Hehe, I laugh at this concept. It seems like an interesting concept but really, whats to say this boat will get a lot of business. I guess there are a lot of wierdos out there, but I prefer staying on... non-manmade land myself. I am sure the creators are really just looking to make money but isnt there much more beneficial ways to spend money?

Hee hee.

I looked up a residential suite the size of our condo, and the purchase price is roughly 2.2 million dollars. The monthly maintenence fee, on top of the purchase price itself, is twice our mortgage, and twenty times our monthly maintenence fee.

A 450 foot unit is 200 grand plus. The economy unit, with no kitchen, is $153,000. For 300 sq feet. If I wanted to pay that much for an apartment, I'd move to downtown San Francisco or Tokyo.

It seems neat, but I can't think of an income level at which I would want to live on that thing. For the price of any suite, there's a much larger and cheaper land-based home available.

But it sure looks cool in a Discovery Channel Extreme Engineering way.

Gilda

There's a lot of rich people that would probably be willing to invest in this. It's not something for the average or above average Joe. A ship like that would certainly need a significant security force, but I wouldn't worry abut pirates that much. Most of the time, pirate attacks are nothing more than a few locals with guns on motor boats. I'd imagine that a ship this size would also have a military escort when going through dangerous waters, like the african coast and Indonesia.

What if you instead compare it to high-end vacation resort pricing? I don't have that information, but it seems more like that.

Also, you need to factor in the fact that you will likely be living tax-free.

I would totally do it... if I could afford it. Who wouldn't want to travel around the whole world?? All the places we'd go, the things we'd see... I would love it. The pluses of travel (new places and experiences) without the negatives of always living out of a suitcase, no stability, etc. Sounds like fun!

If I remember correctly, they will have 100 Propellers (each the size of the one from the Titianic) scattered all across the bottom of the ship in regular increments. They will be able to rotate a full 360 degrees, allowing the ship to move any direction from a standstill. I think it will be fuel powered, although they were looking at other options as well - such as solorpowered. They wanted to use hydroelectric power to help reduce fuel costs, but with the ridiculously slow speed, it wasn't economically viable.

Actually, that depends. There will be no taxes on board the ship, however, the website says US residents will still have to pay income tax. If the person isn't from the US, then I'm probably not aware of their tax laws.

Interesting, I was assuming that the people on board would become residents of this new "nation". Will the ship be registered under a flag of convenience?

Well, it seems that the ship will abide by the laws of whatever water its in. However, with International Water...;)

I was just thinking that if the ship was registered in the Grand Caymens, wouldn't the tax free status extend to the ship?

I suppose US Citizens would have to give up their citizenship in order to be completely taxfree and I can't imagine there are all that many people who are willing to take this step.

This is a pipe dream, and not even a particularly plausible one.
It was posted that they say that it will launch sometime in 2005… however,, construction has not begun. There are not even plans sufficient to show general layout (for instance, what does one of those condo-sized cabins look like? What is the layout of the waterline deck?)
There is no way that a 4,500 foot long ship can be designed, much less completed or the 20,000 person crew hired to make launch occur in even the next few years. Particularly as they indicate they do not even yet have funding, nor know where the funding will come from.

I'd rather build my own island. There was one guy who filled fishing net with an enormous amount of plastic jugs, then covered it with sand and drifted about for a few months. That could be enjoyable.

Read: Ship is not designed.

Read: Official Email address resides at comcast.

Read: They have no money. If anyone really thought this ship would make money they wouldn't have a problem finding financing.

Anyway, these things and more throw up a big red flag that this is just a pipe dream. Of course it's a great idea and everyone WANTS to believe in it, which makes it seem like it can be done :)

Copy and paste, apparently hotlinking aint allowed

http://content.leenks.com/pics/random15/bigboat19gu.jpg
http://content.leenks.com/pics/random15/bigboat24uw.jpg

The web site looks hokey, like they spent maybe $500 on it. Also, some things seem very unprofessional...

Does it not seem like some narcissistic whack-job wrote that?

In addition, they publish a Comcast email address to receive email inquiries. Their corporate office is a PO box. The admin contact on the "freedomship.com" domain traces back to a flaky looking search engine optimization company in Kansas.