The Big Chill

[BigJackBrass]

You might recall his cousin, another somewhat eccentric scientist, from Thomas Dolby's She Blinded Me With Science, but few people know the name Geoffrey Pyke. That's a pity, but at least one of his inventions not only suits pulp gaming perfectly, it actually contained pulp. Wood pulp, that is. You can read about it here: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/floatingisland.php

 

A floating aircraft carrier made of ice, impervious to conventional weaponry, able to be repaired using the very stuff it was floating in. There has to be an adventure in there!

[Shoutybloke]

Re: The Big Chill

 

This was mentioned in Golden Age Champions for 4th edition. Sadly no write up though

[gewing]

Re: The Big Chill

 

You might recall his cousin' date=' another somewhat eccentric scientist, from Thomas Dolby's [i']She Blinded Me With Science[/i], but few people know the name Geoffrey Pyke. That's a pity, but at least one of his inventions not only suits pulp gaming perfectly, it actually contained pulp. Wood pulp, that is. You can read about it here: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/floatingisland.php

 

A floating aircraft carrier made of ice, impervious to conventional weaponry, able to be repaired using the very stuff it was floating in. There has to be an adventure in there!

 

 

ah, the Habbakuk .

 

 

Pulp indeed!

[BigJackBrass]

Re: The Big Chill

 

This was mentioned in Golden Age Champions for 4th edition. Sadly no write up though

 

Really? I don't have that one. It shouldn't be too difficult to define the material in game terms, since unlike ice its properties are consistent, but as the ship was never built it would be a best guess situation to write up that particular monster.

[Comic]

Re: The Big Chill

 

Never built?

 

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say never.

 

Though, it's nowhere near as feasible as hoped.

[Beast]

Re: The Big Chill

 

problems with building the Habbakuk

1) had to start with a work in below freezing area

2)those to serve on board had to live in below freezing temps(there might have been some thermally shielded rooms galleies,sleeping quarters,etc)

3) the thing would have dwarfed a modern CVN(I believe it was suppose to be able to handle medium bombers(b-25,b-26,mosquitoes)

4)the hull was to be arould 30' to 50' thick but it would have been really slow (10kts max)

[Comic]

Re: The Big Chill

 

Not so much pt 2. Igloos are quite comfortable, and they're made of ice.

 

This thing was.. er, would have been.. made of something with a higher melting point.

 

It wouldn't so much have a hull thickness as have access tunnels in it, and bunkers. Or so the theory went.

[st barbara]

Re: The Big Chill

 

I saw something on, of all places, "The Sea Hunters" on t v some months ago about this. Apparently they went looking for the remains of the Habbakuk Project in a lake in Canada. Apparently at least some small scale experiments were completed. Not a lot left to see but the episode was fascinating. John Michell's book "Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions" ("Adventure Unlimited Press", original copyright 1984, also 1999) devotes a chapter to Geoffrey Pyke. He also mentions a biography of Pyke , "'Pyke The Unknown Genius" by David Lampe but doesn't give any further details about the book (other than to say that it was published in London in 1959)

[st barbara]

Re: The Big Chill

 

Not so much pt 2. Igloos are quite comfortable, and they're made of ice.

 

This thing was.. er, would have been.. made of something with a higher melting point.

 

It wouldn't so much have a hull thickness as have access tunnels in it, and bunkers. Or so the theory went.

The ice was to be mixed with "pykrete", a mixture of wood chips and other things that would raise the melting point of the ice.

[gewing]

Re: The Big Chill

 

I don't think its low speed would have been a serious handicap, really. Think of it not so much as an aircraft Carrier as a MOBILE ISLAND!

 

Anchor the thing 300 miles off the East coast, and stage anti-submarine patrol aircraft off of it. Or further off and expand the relatively protected area for the Convoys to the UK.

 

Use it as a research platform for Sonar systems.

 

It should have been functionally indestructible until it could be hit with Nuclear Weapons.

 

Okay, if the Germans or Japanese had been willing to make a suicide submarine, loaded to the max with Torpex or its equivalent, and try to detonate it underneath, it MIGHT have been possible to render it unusable.

 

The US or Britain might possibly have been able to render one unusable with relatively mass raids of heavy bombers dropping Tallboy bombs and such, or the T44.

 

In our Timeline, Neither the Germans nor the Japanese ever fielded an effective HEAVY bomber. Even 5 knots movement would have made it functionally immune from V-1 or V-2 missiles.

 

Imagine cruising it slowly up and down the coast of France, maybe 100 miles off shore? It could launch raids by bombers that would be fully escorted all the way in and out.

 

okay, that would probably not be a practical way to use it. but if anyone seriously wanted to build a bombardment platform...

 

Look at the number of cheap copies of the V-1 the US had stockpiled for the Invasion of Japan. okay, here it is, the LOON.

 

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/ltv-n-2.html

 

We changed the launch system from a steam catapult to a rocket booster on a ramp, and improved the guidance system. It was still only accurate to about 400 meters at 100 miles. but they ordered 120,000 of them!!!

 

back it up with fighter cover and point defense AA fire, and you could devastate coastal cities without using nukes, or having pilots overfly them.

 

might be some good pulp uses.