Testing the WWI concrete ships and WWII concrete barges (thecretefleet.com)
36 points by surprisetalk a day ago
UncleSlacky 4 hours ago
Reminds me of "pykrete" which was also a potential construction material for ships (notably aircraft carriers) proposed during WWII:
robotnikman 2 hours ago
Notably Project Habakkuk, which if built would have been the largest ship ever created.
jimnotgym 6 hours ago
Interestingly concrete yachts are a thing. Ferro-cement is the term, but it is just reinforced concrete. You can buy very large yachts for small amounts of money with yachts made this way in the 70s.
Insurance can be tricky for no really good reason
ofalkaed 3 hours ago
>Insurance can be tricky for no really good reason
It is very expensive to prove a ferro hull to be sound, which is a requirement for getting insurance.
davidjade 3 hours ago
Except the steel armature inside can turn to hidden rust and if you do something and crack the ferro hull they can be a total loss. A lot were home built so finding a quality build is another issue.
There’s a reason insurance won’t touch them.
5555624 4 hours ago
ASCE (American Society opf Civil Engineering) has an annual Concrete Canoe Competition. (https://www.asce.org/communities/student-members/conferences...)
warumdarum 5 hours ago
You could do that today for cargodrone boats sintering or epoxy glueing beachsand?
sandworm101 5 hours ago
Or melt the sand and form it into long strips, fibers, then glue the fibers together in some sort of glass-fiber-epoxy type material. Get the patent done quick because that sounds viable imho.
margalabargala 4 hours ago
Glass fiber? Ridiculous, that'll never work.
cwillu an hour ago
ninalanyon 6 hours ago
Was this created by AI and not proofread or created by a human and not proofread? The paragraph relating to the Musgraves taking over a factory is repeated and it reads rather oddly.
Anyway, regardless of that nitpick, it was an interesting read.