Project Habakkuk

[Orionblamblam]

Re: Habakkuk: Is it more American or British design?

I can't see the US building the Habakkuk. By the end of the war the US was quite good at building quite good steel aircraft carriers; the US was also quite good at taking out the U-Boats from the air. And at the end of the war aircraft such as the B-35 and B-36 were on the horizon capable of carpet bombing Germany from the CONUS. The US didn't *need* the Habakkuk.

The alternate history would have to be quite remarkably different for the US to go ahead with this. The Germans succeed in their invasion of the USSR, say, taking out the Soviets by the end of 1942 and then devoting all their effort to trouncing the Brits by, say, the end of 1943. If the Germans only had to devote a trivial percentage of their effort to the USSR, then *maybe* having a floating, nigh invulnerable way station in the Atlantic might've made some sort of sense.

 

[Wingknut]

A bit more on 'Habakkuk':
http://osnetdaily.com/2015/05/the-colossus-that-never-was-the-amazing-story-of-a-giant-wwii-aircraft-carrier-made-of-ice/

WARSHIP International (vol. 41, No. 3, September 2006), see http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=781

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/icyhusky/media/HMS%20Habakkuk%20model%20project/scan-2.jpg.html

 

[Wingknut]

Hi folks,
Just further to the above: I link to the first of these images in my last post, but here are three drawings from the model Habakkuk project:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/icyhusky/media/HMS%20Habakkuk%20model%20project/scan-2.jpg.html
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/icyhusky/media/HMS%20Habakkuk%20model%20project/scan0001.jpg.html
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/icyhusky/media/HMS%20Habakkuk%20model%20project/scan0002.jpg.html
File-names in the attached are of course my own so apologies for any inaccuracies / mistakes.
Anyway if this stuff is all old news or otherwise unhelpful, let me know and I'll remove it.
Thanks, 'Wingknut'.

 

[paulreilly]

Re: Habakkuk: Is it more American or British design?

There's not much on Pyke or Hababbuk on the internet, Here's a link to a short film about him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Ngv5nfG44

 

[Grey Havoc]

In addition, or alternatively, to the maritime equipped 'Mossies', the basic aircraft compliment of the 2000ft 'Bergship' was also intended to include De Havilland Sea Hornets. The Spitfires would actually have been Seafires. (World of Warships magazine, March 2020 edition)

 

[Firefinder]

Found and explain once again did an interesting video of this with pretty models.

View: https://youtu.be/g3EJ9Jl7CCw?si=QI6Wkh7BMqkDNbr5


Of particular interest to me is the mobile port mention for ship resupply and repairs.

 

[publiusr]

It'sd be nice to see icebergs modified so as to bring water to deserts...

 

[Foo Fighter]

No need to tow icebergs mate. https://www.thenationalnews.com/fut...ing-water-from-desert-air-no-longer-a-mirage/

 

[A51dude]

Wish there was a good book on this project. It's a story that begs to be told.

Actually, there is. The book is titled "The Canadian Habbakuk Project" by Lorne W. Gold. It is the ULTIMATE reference for learning how a Habakkuk vessel could have been built, the history of Project Habakkuk, how the Habakkuk prototype was built on Patricia Lake near Jasper in Alberta, and information on testing of blocks of ice and pykrete. The whole book is like a scientific/engineering journal. I have a copy at home. No other website, Youtube video, or anything else comes close to the information that this book has. The information the book has comes directly from the Canadian National Research Council and/or other Canadian and British military and government sources. Its definately worth a read.

 

[A51dude]

Found and explain once again did an interesting video of this with pretty models.

View: https://youtu.be/g3EJ9Jl7CCw?si=QI6Wkh7BMqkDNbr5


Of particular interest to me is the mobile port mention for ship resupply and repairs.

I saw that video. And I don't put that much stock (faith) in it or any other video about Project Habakkuk.
I've seen my fair share of videos on Project Habakkuk and all I have to say about them is that I find most of them to be nothing more than sensationalist garbage. Just people looking to get their 15 minutes of fame reporting about something they saw or liked and maybe trying to make some $$$ from their video. Sorry to sound so "disgruntled", folks. But I'm a person who tends to prefer "serious research" on the Habakkuk. I prefer reading books and/or information from "official" government or military sources if I can find it which isn't easy.
Some Habakkuk videos might seem nice and do "some" good reporting. But a lot of them tend to exaggerate some of their claims and not do enough fact checking.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

The production plan for Habakkuk was:

8,000 men working to produce the necessary Pykrete blocks over an 8 month period.

The production plant would cover 100 acres and consist of:

A water system delivering 30 million gallons per day
An electric plant producing 150,000 kw
40,000 tons of specialized industrial machinery including:
30 x 2,500 HP pulp grinders
120 x 200 ton ammonia compressors
120 x 70,000 cfm industrial fans
1000 miles + of 1.25" steel pipe
A rail system using flat cars to build the blocks on and transport them to the ship construction site.

An estimated total of 300,000 tons of wood pulp and 1 million gallons of freshwater a day would be required.

The estimated cost of the plant was $10 million.

Two construction sites were proposed having the necessary low temperatures and a deep enough harbor to float the ship:

Cornerbrook Newfoundland and Seven Islands Bay Quebec.

In: Warship number 18, April 1981

Warship. No. 18 April 1981 by Preston, Antony [ed.]: (1981) First Edition. | Barter Books Ltd

ISBN: 9780851772103 - First Edition. - Soft cover - Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London - 1981 - 240mm x 190mm (9" x 7"). 64pp. VG : in very good condition without dust jacket as issued Illustrated laminated card cover - Warship. No. 18 April 1981

www.abebooks.com

 

[Tzoli]

And not one but 12 was considered to be built if I remember correctly and likely 4-5 per Ocean (Atlantic and Pacific with 1-2 in reserve) This would provide the necessary air coverage of convoys.

 

[CJGibson]

I look at a proposal to use Habakkuk as a base for Tiger Force in They Also Serve.

Chris

 

[A51dude]

The production plan for Habakkuk was:

8,000 men working to produce the necessary Pykrete blocks over an 8 month period.

The production plant would cover 100 acres and consist of:

A water system delivering 30 million gallons per day
An electric plant producing 150,000 kw
40,000 tons of specialized industrial machinery including:
30 x 2,500 HP pulp grinders
120 x 200 ton ammonia compressors
120 x 70,000 cfm industrial fans
1000 miles + of 1.25" steel pipe
A rail system using flat cars to build the blocks on and transport them to the ship construction site.

An estimated total of 300,000 tons of wood pulp and 1 million gallons of freshwater a day would be required.

The estimated cost of the plant was $10 million.

Two construction sites were proposed having the necessary low temperatures and a deep enough harbor to float the ship:

Cornerbrook Newfoundland and Seven Islands Bay Quebec.

In: Warship number 18, April 1981

Warship. No. 18 April 1981 by Preston, Antony [ed.]: (1981) First Edition. | Barter Books Ltd

ISBN: 9780851772103 - First Edition. - Soft cover - Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London - 1981 - 240mm x 190mm (9" x 7"). 64pp. VG : in very good condition without dust jacket as issued Illustrated laminated card cover - Warship. No. 18 April 1981

www.abebooks.com

I see your statistics and I'll raise you mine.
I wrote some data specification sheets of my own and posted them in Post # 164 on Page 11 of my 1/350 scale Habakkuk model thread which is located here:
https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=51061.150
The information from Attachments A & B comes directly from "The Canadian Habbakuk Project" book by Lorne W. Gold.

 

[publiusr]

I wonder if glaciers could be stabilized if mixed with other materials.

 

[Graham1973]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-8ppT7TYrg

 

[A_Random_Guy]

And not one but 12 was considered to be built if I remember correctly and likely 4-5 per Ocean (Atlantic and Pacific with 1-2 in reserve) This would provide the necessary air coverage of convoys.

Do you remember where you saw that or any other details of it?

 

[Tzoli]

Do you remember where you saw that or any other details of it?

Will have to check