Dutchman Johan Huibers builds gigantic wooden Ark

I would wager no matter your religious views that we are all familiar with the biblical story of Noah's Ark. The giant ship that god commanded Noah to build to save his family and a pair of each animal so that the world could start over after the flood. A Dutchman named Johan Huibers has constructed his second ark and this time he built the thing to the same dimensions that Noah used. The first ark was about half the size of the latest and Huibers chartered that ship charging $7 per person and raised the money to build his new ark.

The new ship is made from pine and construction began in 2008. So far, the ship has cost $1 million to build. The ark weighs in a 3,000 tons and the ship is 450-feet long and is intended to carry 1,500 passengers. Among those passengers will be a pair of live chickens and some fiberglass animals. Unlike Noah, Huibers had to resort to a steel keel to get the ship to the biblical dimensions. Apparently, building of a wooden ship over 350-feet is very difficult because the length makes a watertight hull hard to achieve.

Apparently, the new ark is ready to sail. The builder is negotiating with London right now to sail the ark down the Thames for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The ship looks gigantic; I can't imagine sailing it down the Thames. I also wonder what powers the gigantic ark; it must use giant engines of some sort.

[via TheScuttlefish]