No cruise ship that has ever been built can compare to the enormity of Freedom Ship. Imagine a mile-long stretch of 25-story-tall buildings in New York City; now imagine that floating on the water. If you can picture that, then you get the general idea of Freedom Ship's size. At 4,320 feet (1,317 meters) long, 725 feet (221 m) wide and 340 feet (103 m) tall, the ship is taller than the length of a football field and wider than two football fields put together. And not only can a ship that size float on water, but it may be navigating the world's oceans as early as 2005.Freedom Ship will dwarf any ocean-going vessel operating today -- it will be more than four times longer than any current cruise ship.
Freedom Ship will be built on top of 520 airtight steel cells that will be bolted together to form a sturdy base. Each cell will be 80 feet (24 meters) tall, between 50 and 100 feet (15 and 30 m) wide and between 50 and 120 feet (15 and 37 m) long. These cells will be assembled to form larger units that are about 300 x 400 feet (91 x 122 m). These larger units will then be taken out to sea, where they will be put together to form the ship's nearly mile-long base. The rest of the ship will be constructed on top of this base. Norman Nixon, who developed the idea of a floating city, has said that it will take about three years to finish the ship once construction begins.
It will take a tremendous amount of engine power to push the gigantic ship through the water. The vessel will be equipped with 100 diesel engines that can generate 3,700 horsepower each. Developers project the cost of each engine to be about $1 million. That may give you an idea of how expensive the project is, although the total cost of Freedom Ship has not been released. The ship's high construction cost will be passed on to residents, who will pay up to $11 million to purchase living space on the floating city.
Freedom Ship will have 17,000 residential units and will be home to more than 60,000 people, including residents and all of the personnel that will be required to maintain the ship. The floating city will continuously circle the world and will travel to most of Earth's coastal regions, offering residents the ability to see the entire globe without leaving their home. All of the ship's employees will be given food, housing, uniforms, medical and dental care and a continuing education program. The ship will contain all of the features that any modern city might have, including:
A $200 million hospital
A 3,800-foot (1,158-m) landing strip, which will serve private planes and some small commercial aircraft that carry no more than 40 passengers
Hangars for private aircraft
A marina for residents' yachts
A large shopping mall
A school system offering K-12 and college education
A golf driving range
Bicycle paths
200 open acres for recreation For those who can afford to live on Freedom Ship, the most attractive feature may be that it has no local taxes, including income tax, real estate tax, sales tax, business tax and import duties. However, residents will have to abide by federal tax laws in their home country.
For entertainment, residents can visit one of the many restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and theaters. Residents will also enjoy tennis, basketball, bowling, putting greens, swimming pools, gyms, a skating rink and fishing from the ship's marina. Each home will have 100 channels of worldwide satellite TV channels and local programming from nearby countries. Internet access will be available in each unit.
Life aboard Freedom ship.
Just like your own hometown, Freedom Ship will have a security force onboard that will patrol the ship at all times. In addition, the ship's entire crew will receive security training. An electronic security system will be installed to offer further protection to residents.
In addition to all of these benefits, Freedom Ship will also be environmentally friendly, according to its developers. There will be no sewage treatment plant and no sewage to spill. The ship will use incinerator toilets, which cost about $3,000 apiece, to burn all sewage. The ashes will be put in the flower beds. Waste oil will be burned in an exhaust steam plant to generate electricity, instead of being dumped in the ocean. All used glass, paper and metal will be recycled and sold. Freedom Ship International estimates that each resident will produce 80 percent less waste on the ship than at his or her current home on land.
How Floating Cities Will Work
Millions of people take cruises each year; but when their cruise ends, they usually return to their homes on land. Wouldn't it be great if there were a cruise that never ended? That's the basic idea behind a new ocean vessel called Freedom Ship. Unlike a cruise ship, Freedom Ship will be a floating city with permanent residents. The ship will circle the globe every two years and offer everything available in your hometown, including a hospital, college and one of the world's largest shopping malls. Freedom Ship will most likely become a home for the rich and famous. Suites start at $121,000 for a 300-square-foot room and go up to $11 million for a 5,100 square foot suite on the ship's exclusive 21st floor, where prices start at $3 million!
Blogers view:
Part of the problem appears to be that the project is still in an initial stage, and they don't have a comprehensive design. FSI doesn't have definite answers to some of the suggested problems because they haven't gotten around to solving them yet. However, some of the suggested problems are project-killers - things that, if not addressed, mean that the concept just won't float. While its reasonable for FSI to not have very well thought-out condo layouts yet, it is not reasonable for them to not have detailed answers about the resupply problem, or why the hull won't snap in large waves. I would feel much better about FSI if they publicly admitted some of these problems and discussed their approaches to solving them - indicating that they are being realistic and looking at the project seriously. Instead, they tell the world only the positives, gloss over the problems, and say that all they need is funding to work out the details. This raises bright red flags to my skeptical instincts.
At first, I thought this meant it was probably a con, but since they stopped taking deposits, they are not getting any money from people people. The most reasonable explanation I see left which fits the data is that the people behind the project are overenthusiastic visionaries who are more interested in pursuing their fantasy than building a solid basis in reality. Why else would they put effort into designing the healthcare and education systems onboard when they still haven't shown that the ship won't be snapped in two by large waves? Why do they ignore netizens who raise legitimate engineering problems instead of harnessing their expertise? Why do they portray the project as being much more complete than it actually is?
I also feel that the collossal scope of the project is a bad indication. Given that it is an unproven concept, I would expect a realistic business to start small. Instead of making a mile-long city at sea that costs $8B, start out with a cruise ship that costs $200M - $400M. A normal-sized cruise ship might not be quite so seductive a vision, but it could adequately fulfill the goal of Freedom Ship - to provide a seagoing living and working environment for freedom-minded individuals. This is the approach taken by Residensea, which cost $260M, and unlike the Freedom Ship was actually built. (Unfortunately, rumour has it that Residensea only sold half their units, and has lost a lot of money. I'd guess the problem was that they targeted the ultra-luxury market just as the global recession hit. Whatever the reason, if its true that they were a financial failure, that makes it even more unlikely that a much larger project could get funded.)
Nandkishore Gitte.
Freedom Ship will be built on top of 520 airtight steel cells that will be bolted together to form a sturdy base. Each cell will be 80 feet (24 meters) tall, between 50 and 100 feet (15 and 30 m) wide and between 50 and 120 feet (15 and 37 m) long. These cells will be assembled to form larger units that are about 300 x 400 feet (91 x 122 m). These larger units will then be taken out to sea, where they will be put together to form the ship's nearly mile-long base. The rest of the ship will be constructed on top of this base. Norman Nixon, who developed the idea of a floating city, has said that it will take about three years to finish the ship once construction begins.
It will take a tremendous amount of engine power to push the gigantic ship through the water. The vessel will be equipped with 100 diesel engines that can generate 3,700 horsepower each. Developers project the cost of each engine to be about $1 million. That may give you an idea of how expensive the project is, although the total cost of Freedom Ship has not been released. The ship's high construction cost will be passed on to residents, who will pay up to $11 million to purchase living space on the floating city.
Freedom Ship will have 17,000 residential units and will be home to more than 60,000 people, including residents and all of the personnel that will be required to maintain the ship. The floating city will continuously circle the world and will travel to most of Earth's coastal regions, offering residents the ability to see the entire globe without leaving their home. All of the ship's employees will be given food, housing, uniforms, medical and dental care and a continuing education program. The ship will contain all of the features that any modern city might have, including:
A $200 million hospital
A 3,800-foot (1,158-m) landing strip, which will serve private planes and some small commercial aircraft that carry no more than 40 passengers
Hangars for private aircraft
A marina for residents' yachts
A large shopping mall
A school system offering K-12 and college education
A golf driving range
Bicycle paths
200 open acres for recreation For those who can afford to live on Freedom Ship, the most attractive feature may be that it has no local taxes, including income tax, real estate tax, sales tax, business tax and import duties. However, residents will have to abide by federal tax laws in their home country.
For entertainment, residents can visit one of the many restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and theaters. Residents will also enjoy tennis, basketball, bowling, putting greens, swimming pools, gyms, a skating rink and fishing from the ship's marina. Each home will have 100 channels of worldwide satellite TV channels and local programming from nearby countries. Internet access will be available in each unit.
Life aboard Freedom ship.
Just like your own hometown, Freedom Ship will have a security force onboard that will patrol the ship at all times. In addition, the ship's entire crew will receive security training. An electronic security system will be installed to offer further protection to residents.
In addition to all of these benefits, Freedom Ship will also be environmentally friendly, according to its developers. There will be no sewage treatment plant and no sewage to spill. The ship will use incinerator toilets, which cost about $3,000 apiece, to burn all sewage. The ashes will be put in the flower beds. Waste oil will be burned in an exhaust steam plant to generate electricity, instead of being dumped in the ocean. All used glass, paper and metal will be recycled and sold. Freedom Ship International estimates that each resident will produce 80 percent less waste on the ship than at his or her current home on land.
How Floating Cities Will Work
Millions of people take cruises each year; but when their cruise ends, they usually return to their homes on land. Wouldn't it be great if there were a cruise that never ended? That's the basic idea behind a new ocean vessel called Freedom Ship. Unlike a cruise ship, Freedom Ship will be a floating city with permanent residents. The ship will circle the globe every two years and offer everything available in your hometown, including a hospital, college and one of the world's largest shopping malls. Freedom Ship will most likely become a home for the rich and famous. Suites start at $121,000 for a 300-square-foot room and go up to $11 million for a 5,100 square foot suite on the ship's exclusive 21st floor, where prices start at $3 million!
Blogers view:
Part of the problem appears to be that the project is still in an initial stage, and they don't have a comprehensive design. FSI doesn't have definite answers to some of the suggested problems because they haven't gotten around to solving them yet. However, some of the suggested problems are project-killers - things that, if not addressed, mean that the concept just won't float. While its reasonable for FSI to not have very well thought-out condo layouts yet, it is not reasonable for them to not have detailed answers about the resupply problem, or why the hull won't snap in large waves. I would feel much better about FSI if they publicly admitted some of these problems and discussed their approaches to solving them - indicating that they are being realistic and looking at the project seriously. Instead, they tell the world only the positives, gloss over the problems, and say that all they need is funding to work out the details. This raises bright red flags to my skeptical instincts.
At first, I thought this meant it was probably a con, but since they stopped taking deposits, they are not getting any money from people people. The most reasonable explanation I see left which fits the data is that the people behind the project are overenthusiastic visionaries who are more interested in pursuing their fantasy than building a solid basis in reality. Why else would they put effort into designing the healthcare and education systems onboard when they still haven't shown that the ship won't be snapped in two by large waves? Why do they ignore netizens who raise legitimate engineering problems instead of harnessing their expertise? Why do they portray the project as being much more complete than it actually is?
I also feel that the collossal scope of the project is a bad indication. Given that it is an unproven concept, I would expect a realistic business to start small. Instead of making a mile-long city at sea that costs $8B, start out with a cruise ship that costs $200M - $400M. A normal-sized cruise ship might not be quite so seductive a vision, but it could adequately fulfill the goal of Freedom Ship - to provide a seagoing living and working environment for freedom-minded individuals. This is the approach taken by Residensea, which cost $260M, and unlike the Freedom Ship was actually built. (Unfortunately, rumour has it that Residensea only sold half their units, and has lost a lot of money. I'd guess the problem was that they targeted the ultra-luxury market just as the global recession hit. Whatever the reason, if its true that they were a financial failure, that makes it even more unlikely that a much larger project could get funded.)
Nandkishore Gitte.
5 Comments:
I have followed this project since its feature in the NEWS OF THE WORLD newspaper in the UK on 15th March 1998 and in my professional opinion based on what progress I have observed since that time and the excuses made for this, I believe that this is one persons dream with no reality or sadly perhaps even a scam
Ship Builder: You could set up factories on some of the visiting Islands and when the people are visiting you could also be replenishing the ships.
wow, pues el simple hecho de imaginarse una ciudad flotante es una idea maravillosa, esperemos en Diuos que este proyecto se lleve a cabo y crezca de una manera espectacular.
Better have it animated and make a movie. Then give the fund to nourished the poorest humans on Earth.
The FREEEEEEEEEDOM ship is WAY bigger then the Titanic. You are lol! That is enough.
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