Secret WWII project sees ship made out of ice!

Project Habbakuk now lies at the bottom of Lake Patrica in Jasper National Park. 

 

Scuba dive to the murky bottom of  Lake Patricia and you will find a commemorative plaque.

Photo Source:Susan Langley

 

 

The project was in effort to make boats stronger and more durable during WWII.

The ship wasn’t exactly ice.
It was Pykrete, which is a mix of wood dust and pulp with water to be frozen. The resulting mix was nearly indestructible.
So much so, that it’s inventor was laughed at for his idea, but was instantly taken serious when he barged into a war time leaders meeting with ice and Pykrete.

His goal? To show off the properties of Pykrete against traditional ice.
Geoffrey Pyke took a pistol; shot the ice. It exploded into hundreds of fragments.
He than shot the Pykrete with the pistol and the the compound was barely affected.
The presentation was successful in convincing the leaders to develop the idea, however it failed in the fact that the bullet he shot the Pykrete with bounced off and hit one of the War time leaders causing serious but non lethal damage.

The ships themselves were built around refrigeration coils that would keep the compound frozen and intact.

Smaller versions of the ships were constructed and tested to be sea-worthy, however a big change in the war rendered the use of these ships useless.  They stopped maintaining the experimental ship and let it sink.
These refrigeration coils are the only remains of what was the only sea worthy ship made of ice.

This of course is just a teensie weensie bit of info on this.
A quick google search will pretty much turn up with all these things written but more in detail.

Here’s a youtube video of what it might be like if you went to see it for yourself.
This is one of those things I think, that if you see it once that’s all you need. Doesn’t need to be a yearly thing.

[COVERPHOTOSOURCE:99%Invisible.org]

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