Submarine Liner

[All Seeing Eye]

That's right, a Submarine Liner not a Cruise Liner.

Would it be possible to build a submarine the size of a cruise liner? or bigger? this would not be a military vessel but sort of a vessel capable of carrying a LOT of people and families on-board.

The real reason i'm asking this is because in the event of a mass extinction in the year 2012 the chances of surviving would be much greater if there was a cruise liner sized submarine capable of dropping people into the lowest depths of the ocean.
It wouldn't have windows and it would be heavily re-inforced, nuclear powered and with an enormous (several years) stockpile of food as well as a large number of quarters holding perhaps 10 people each and there'd be one large canteen where the people would go and eat (the food would be rationed daily).

So is it possible? how much might it cost? what would be the best way of re-inforcing it? what would the best systems be for it? should it have some weapons?

 

[JustAFriend]

The big 'boomer' missle subs ARE as big a cruise ships.

Problem is, you cant line them with windows, so whos gonna pay to sit in a tube and be told they're under the ocean???

And if there was an 'extinction even' in 2012 there wouldn't be enough time now to do anything about it... you couldn't build your 'escape sub' in the amount of time left. And any event capable of wiping out life on the surface would take out your sub, too....

Wouldn't even make a good SciFi-channel $1million movie.... but you can just go watch the original "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Problem is, you cant line them with windows, so whos gonna pay to sit in a tube and be told they're under the ocean???

As I said, it would be for Human survival not a holiday/vacation. There would be no need for windows (I already said there would be no windows) and any windows regardless of how thick would not be as strong as a full metal hull and would therefore not be as well equipped to survive a cataclysm.
I highly doubt people will refuse to climb onboard and will instead stand outside to be killed by a cataclysm just because it has no windows.

And if there was an 'extinction even' in 2012 there wouldn't be enough time now to do anything about it... you couldn't build your 'escape sub' in the amount of time left. And any event capable of wiping out life on the surface would take out your sub, too....

I'm sure there isn't time and even if there was time I highly doubt my thread here is going to cause anyone to put it into planning. It's just a thread asking questions about it, i'm not suggesting we start building it or begin a petition requesting one be built.

 

[sojourner]

The big 'boomer' missle subs ARE as big a cruise ships.

Problem is, you cant line them with windows, so whos gonna pay to sit in a tube and be told they're under the ocean???

And if there was an 'extinction even' in 2012 there wouldn't be enough time now to do anything about it... you couldn't build your 'escape sub' in the amount of time left. And any event capable of wiping out life on the surface would take out your sub, too....

Wouldn't even make a good SciFi-channel $1million movie.... but you can just go watch the original "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

LOL, your gonna be disappointed with the new 2012 trailer then.

 

[FrankR]

The big 'boomer' missle subs ARE as big a cruise ships.

Nope; Boomers aren't even close.

The largest submarine; soviet Akula (aka typhoon) class is 564ft
The worlds largest cruise ship; Oasis of the Seas: (Oasis Class) 1,184 ft

In fact Royal Caribbean Internationals smallest cruise ships (Soverign class) are 880 ft long.

Akula Class:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-Does-the-World-039-s-Largest-Nuclear-Submarine-Work-56529.shtml

RCL's Oasis of the Seas (Oasis Class):
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/finda...h:13hldcgo7?br=R&shipClassCode=OA&shipCode=OA

RCL's Monarch of the Seas (Sovereign class):
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/finda...h:13hldcgo7?br=R&shipClassCode=SS&shipCode=MN

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The question is if you've got the space to spare, do you fill it with a huge organ or more seamen?

 

[All Seeing Eye]

The largest submarine; soviet Akula (aka typhoon) class is 564ft
The worlds largest cruise ship; Oasis of the Seas: (Oasis Class) 1,184 ft

and that's just length right? that's not counting it's height, width and therefore full volume.
Imagine something THIS big or maybe even bigger cruising under water.

 

[FrankR]

The largest submarine; soviet Akula (aka typhoon) class is 564ft
The worlds largest cruise ship; Oasis of the Seas: (Oasis Class) 1,184 ft

and that's just length right? that's not counting it's height, width and therefore full volume.
Imagine something THIS big or maybe even bigger cruising under water.

Right; Gross Tonnage is the internal volume, and the Oasis is has a GT of 220,000. Unfortunately all I can find on the Akula is its Displacement Tonnage which is a different thing.

 

[Mr. B]

Any ideas on what percentage of the boat's volume would have to be devoted to food production? If this vessel is really supposed to sustain people for decades, are food stockpiles going to cut it?

 

[FrankR]

Any ideas on what percentage of the boat's volume would have to be devoted to food production? If this vessel is really supposed to sustain people for decades, are food stockpiles going to cut it?

If they do it like military subs; the space is intermingled; removable deck plates with a few feet of storage underneath. you literally walk over the food.
However that won't last years. So I imagine some sort of hydroponics & ocean life harvesting system would need to be used... hmmm, my favorite; soy & plankton.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Well firstly I didn't say decades, might only need to be a year, perhaps 2.

Secondly I did originally mention a hydroponics bay in the OP but took it out as I didn't see any reason why the people would be on that long. Once the cataclysm has been survived it would be a case of re-emerging to the surface. Let's say the threat is meteor impacts perhaps they'd only last a few weeks, a few months tops.

Given the right kind of food stuffs and vitamin rations the people on board could probably survive for a year or 2. The food wouldn't be your usual home made meals or anything like that, they would be packets of cereal bars, large economy sized tins of beans and veg etc all tightly packed into some kind of storage bay and as has been mentioned locked away under the flooring.

I see no reason why the size of the vessel couldn't be built with enough space to store a couple of years worth of food for a pre-known number of crew/people.

 

[sojourner]

The big 'boomer' missle subs ARE as big a cruise ships.

Nope; Boomers aren't even close.

The largest submarine; soviet Akula (aka typhoon) class is 564ft
The worlds largest cruise ship; Oasis of the Seas: (Oasis Class) 1,184 ft

In fact Royal Caribbean Internationals smallest cruise ships (Soverign class) are 880 ft long.

Akula Class:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-Does-the-World-039-s-Largest-Nuclear-Submarine-Work-56529.shtml

RCL's Oasis of the Seas (Oasis Class):
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/finda...h:13hldcgo7?br=R&shipClassCode=OA&shipCode=OA

RCL's Monarch of the Seas (Sovereign class):
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/finda...h:13hldcgo7?br=R&shipClassCode=SS&shipCode=MN

Yea, I have served as system admin on about half of Royal Caribbean's ships. We literally looked down on Nimitz class aircraft carriers from time to time. Submarines are small fry in comparison.

Come to think of the situation though, wouldn't building a couple huge ships be putting all of your eggs in one basket? I would think it would be better to build numerous Akula size subs. That way you can better sustain loss of vehicles. You can also spread them out more so that no single event is likely to take everyone out.

 

[backstept]

put simply: this will not work

 

[All Seeing Eye]

put simply: this will not work

How so?

 

[Lindley]

Do the submarines have concert speakers?

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Wasn't there a seperate thread for this kind of thing?

Normal people would go crazy under the conditions that missle sub guys live under, boomers only go out 6 moths per cruise.

There's also an issue of limited duration due to supplies.

Been watching On the Beach, Taccy?

Bottom line, won't work. Unless of course you build a full scale demonstrator and prove us all wrong.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Normal people would go crazy under the conditions that missle sub guys live under, boomers only go out 6 moths per cruise.

Depends, the conditions won't be THAT similar to a submarines, it will be large afterall and will hopefully be built with long duration considered. It also wont be a military vessel with stealth in mind.

There's also an issue of limited duration due to supplies.

Already mentioned above about the food situation.

Been watching On the Beach, Taccy?

No.

 

[chardman]

Guys, you're all missing the point, which is that "somebody" appears to actually believe that there really is something to this 2012 apocalyptic nonsense.

That right there should be all the proof that any of us need to know that scientific facts won't really matter in this discussion. Any facts that hamper the fantasy of workable submarine survival shelters, will undoubtedly be ignored by those who believe in this silly threat. It's an aquatic version of "The Rapture", plain and simple.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

^ What are you saying?

 

[sojourner]

Guys, you're all missing the point, which is that "somebody" appears to actually believe that there really is something to this 2012 apocalyptic nonsense.

That right there should be all the proof that any of us need to know that scientific facts won't really matter in this discussion. Any facts that hamper the fantasy of workable submarine survival shelters, will undoubtedly be ignored by those who believe in this silly threat. It's an aquatic version of "The Rapture", plain and simple.

Way to take a conjectural question and jump overboard with it!

I don't think one person who has posted in this thread is seriously suggesting that we need to start constructing these for any reason, nevermind in time for Dec. 21, 2012.