Shipbucket

lol lulzy idea, though not something I'd like to see.

_________________
95% of my drawings are destined for NS, 4.9% for fun, & .1% serious.
Worklist:
Space Shuttle
Atlas V
Delta II/III
Project Constellation
Soyuz series

These need to be moved to Never Built, as they were real proposals in the 60's

The source data and such can be found in:

USNRDL-TR-659 -- 16 July 1963 -- CIVIL DEFENSE UTILIZATION OF SHIPS AND BOATS by W.H. Van Horn, D. Freund.

Special Thanks to Ryan Crierie for finding this in the first place.

_________________
𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

It might help if you posted some background to these. Looking at them they appear to be survival shelters utilising old ship and sub hulls, buried in sand to protect against radiation.

I thought it'd be more fun if people took a whack at it themselves - especially since, given all the clues you're already given at face-value right on the drawing itself, it shouldn't be too hard to infer :p
You would be correct. TimothyC posted where it comes from and I'll see if I can get permission from Ryan to post the actual quotes. Anyway, BB-58 Indiana nearly became the "underground White House" - instead a more traditional concrete structure was built, underneath a golf course of all things (the latter did have the advantage of offering a lot more options on amenities and more White House-like features). Gato and Balao-class submarines were also looked at as being used as civilian shelters around coastlines, being buried on the beach - their pressure hulls were found to be extremely resilient against radiation blasts and therefore the only modifications necessary would've been to allow for air venting - something like less then 10 grand, if I remember correctly, would've been needed to "build" a shelter, and that includes final destination and burying costs. It was turned down and no hulls converted because there weren't a lot of hulls to go around, especially since at the same time this type of submarine was also really popular on the export market. Far more common types, like Liberty Ships, were also looked at, but if I recall correctly it was decided that these cheap, mass-produced hulls didn't take to being buried in deep sand or earth real well, let alone resisting a nuclear blast even with underground protection.

Thanks for the reply. I recall reading somewhere that burying equipment in sand (if properly sealed) provides considerable protection against conventional and nuclear blasts; so in theory, after a nuclear exchange the survivors could get started once theyd' dug stuff out. And the Iraq'is buried some aircraft in sand in one of the gulf wars; but that may gave been more for concealment.

You can find the original drawings here at my website:

Link 1

Link 2

The Battleship plan is specifically here Link to Pic.

Very interesting.

_________________
USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Oh! frak! Beaten to the punch once again. Nice job through,
I'd didn't know about the proposal to use subs through. (Would of been neat I they kept the turrets)