Slashdot Mirror
World's Largest Ship Floated For the First Time
Zothecula writes "A ship with a hull longer than the Empire State Building is tall has been floated out of dry dock in Geoje, South Korea. Measuring 488 m (1,601 ft) long and 74 m (243 ft) wide, the hull belongs to Shell's Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, which upon completion will be the largest floating facility ever built."
As it has no motive power of its own (it has to be towed into position), it is not really a ship. But it is still a really cool feat of engineering, designed to ride out the typhoon season off the Australian coast and keep LNG production going for 25 years or so... ;)
However, Shell are apparently building an even bigger one as well. Maybe they are trying to have a ship that is longer than the Burj Khalifa?
I'm cucurious what these types of floating superstructures do to the ecology around them. The environmental impact of their sheer existence in the water is potentially staggering.
I saw a documentary on them a couple of nights ago, and this shipyard is averaging a super-tanker every 3.5 days if you divide the number of super-tankers they will build this year. Absolutely stunning the technology, skills, planning and productivity that they are managing there. This wouldn't be achievable in a western country thanks to unions and the terrible productivity and project overruns that come with western societies.
There are easier ways. The UK had a very similar situation once - pirate radio ships in the 60s. Stations were broadcasting from international water. This created a problem for the government: They were causing interference to commercial stations, blatantly infringing copyright, and had a tendency to say very offensive things that would get 'legitimate' stations in trouble. Yet they were legally untouchable. The government's solution was simple: Siege. They made it a crime for anyone to provide any service to these boats, including transportation or sale of goods. Thus the pirates couldn't come ashore (They'd be arrested), and their supporters couldn't deliver supplies (they'd be arrested upon return), and eventually the ships would run out of food for the crew and fuel for the transmitter.
The same approach would work against a hypothetical Blueseed-like ship: Simply make it illegal to travel outside the US to work while in the US on a visitor or student visa. The workers can still go out to work, but they can't come back without being arrested. If they start doing anything illegal enough to really upset the powers that be (Counterfeit goods manufacture, drug production, unlicensed radio station operation, etc) then they can be shut down by the siege approach.