Re:Is It Possible to Build an "Unsinkable" Ship?
by mixmax on Sunday April 15, 2012 @11:05PM
(#3845714)
A friend of mine has built the largest homemade submarine in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC3_Nautilus) and they're clearly dangerous vessels, exactly because of what you're saying: If something goes wrong you're under 100 feet of water with no way of getting out. Even though UC3 Nautilus has a lot of built-in safety there have been a few situations that I would consider much more dangerous than sailing a dinghy across the bay of Biscay in a force gale 12 storm.
Re:Is It Possible to Build an "Unsinkable" Ship?
by tedunangst on Sunday April 15, 2012 @11:58PM
(#3845827)
Unsinkable passengers? Sure. Just make everybody wear drysuits and floaties. It may not be Titanic chic, but you can't have everything.
I think what the article is really getting at is whether or not it's possible to build an indestructible ship, and of course, the answer to that is no.
It's possible to make a ship that is much stronger than the people it carries -- most ships are, but that doesn't make the people any less fragile or more susceptible to death, injury or drowning.
Submarines are perhaps a superior design for this, on paper, but generally speaking, a submarine isn't where you want to be if the submarine is in any danger whatsoever.
So yeah, unsinkable boat? Check. Unsinkable passengers? No check.