Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Earthship Westerdam

—

by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Comparing human settlement patterns on the luxury liner Westerdam with towns and cities in Virginia, as I’ve done in my most recent column, “Earthship Westerdam,” may seem a bit of a stretch. I certainly don’t advocate modeling Virginia communities on a cruise liner with midtown-Manhattan levels of density. I regard the article as more of a brain bender. Sometimes it helps to take a look at familiar problems from radically different perspectives.

A number of observations come out of the story.

  • The autocentric society. It’s amazing what happens when you take cars and supporting infrastructure (roads, parking spaces, driveway and garages) out of the equation. The need for space is drastically reduced. Layer 15 decks (11 above the waterline, four below) on top of one another, link them vertically with stairwells and elevators, and nearly all destinations required for a population of 2,700 are within a five-minute walk of one another.
  • Private space/personal space. It’s remarkable how much you can shrink private space (personal residences) if you compensate with quality public spaces. In America, we buy ever bigger houses that incorporate an increasing array of once-public functions; all the while, the public realm suffers. Spaceship Westerdam does the opposite, cramming passengers into tiny staterooms but providing an extraordinary array of amenities from pools to casinos, concert halls to gourmet restaurants. And bars. Lots of bars.
  • Conservation and environmental protection. It’s incredible what a community (and a cruise liner is a community) can do with just one environmental officer among its 800-person crew and staff. The Westerdam has recycling and water treatment capabilities you won’t find in towns or cities 10 times its population. The lesson for Virginia: Set environmental goals, measure your progress in achieving them, and then ratchet your goals higher as you succeed. By cutting energy consumption and waste disposal costs, conservation often pays its way.

Please note: I do not believe in social engineering. I do not want to turn our towns and cities into replicas of cruise liners. I just think that there may be perspectives worth borrowing as we visualize the kinds of communities we want to build and live in.

(Photo credit: Holland-America Line)

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18 responses to “Earthship Westerdam”

  1. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Welcome back Jim. Loved your “I’m back pix”.

    I KNEW you would not go onto that liner and not pay attention to things like this.

    There are two kinds of folks.

    When they go onto a liner – One kind wants to see .. for instance.. how fresh water and sewage is handled on that liner .. and then the other kind don’t care as long as the liquor and shrimp hold out…

    🙂

    One question for you.

    Was there Internet Access and did you use it or did you spend a whole week without it?

  2. Reid Greenmun Avatar
    Reid Greenmun

    Of course most of the people on that cruise ship don’t all have to be at work during the same time of the day – nor do they all have to shop to by food and prepare meals.

    Nor, apparently, do they have the option of not being forced to live and interact with bars, lots of bars.

    How much opportunity is their for competition on the cruise ship? What controls the prices on individual goods and services?

    Where are the schools for the school children? Ops, not there.

    Gee, let me think, do I prefer large private spaces I own – or paying rent for tiny, cramped spaces with access to large “community” “public” spaces?

    And of course, the rich live in luxury – very limited luxury. The rest? Well, they are the masses living in the cramped quarters designed to cram as many people into as small a space as possible.

    The net effect is that unless you are REALLY rich, you don’t really have ANT privacy – outside of a tiny, cramped space.

    But hey! Look, no automobiles!! Wow, isn’t that “better”???

  3. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Oh, c’mon Reid,give JB a break. He is still recovering, anyway he pre-empted many of your comments in the article.

    I thought it was a stretch, but it was a good brain bender. Such exercizes are a necessary and important part of brainstorming.

    I’ll say this though, when I was in the service I studied marine engineering and architecture (introductory stuff, but still good.) One of the design and engineering mantras was that there was no ship large enough to adequately feed and house the crew required to run it.

    I sure hope that isn’t true for cruise-vessel earth, but I’m not optimistic for the long voyage.

  4. David Weintraub Avatar
    David Weintraub

    Let’s not forget that the autocentric lifestyle is also socially engineered.

  5. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Well, I guess that’s true. In the early 1900’s urban planners seemed to think it might be a good idea to get their streets out from under the pooh end of the horse.

    At the same time, rural farmers had the obviously mistaken idea they might get more work done using automotive technology.

    I’m sure that would have never happened had it not been for the giant automotive and road building lobbies of the time.

  6. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Maybe the reason they are so concerned about the energy budget on that liner is because it is so HUGE.

  7. Freedom Works Avatar
    Freedom Works

    Jim:

    Enjoyed your article. There is a group taking it one step further. They are proposing to build an entire floating city complete with condos, shops, schools, parks etc.

    Here is their website –

    http://www.freedomship.com/

    Here is some of what the ship would contain:

    “…18,000 living units, with prices in the range of $180,000 to $2.5 million, including a small number of premium suites currently priced up to $44 million.

    3,000 commercial units in a similar price range

    2,400 time-share units

    10,000 hotel units

    A World Class Casino

    A ferryboat transportation system that provides departures every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, to 3 or more local cities giving ship residents access to the local neighborhood and up to 30,000 land-based residents a chance to spend a day on the ship.

    A World-Class Medical Facility practicing Western and Eastern medicine as well as preventive and anti-aging medicine.

    A School System that gives the students a chance to take a field trip into a different Country each week for academic purposes or to compete with local schools in numerous sporting events. For example; The Freedom Ship High School Soccer team plays a Paris High School team this week at home and an Italian team next week in Italy, while the Freedom Ship High School Band presents a New Orleans Jazz musical at a concert hall in London.

    An International Trade Center that gives on-board companies and shops the opportunity to show and sell their products in a different Country each week.
    More than 100 acres of outdoor Park, Recreation, Exercise and Community space for the enjoyment of residents and visitors…”

    If they ever pull this off, it will change real estate and government forever. The oceans cover two-thirds of the earth’s surface. Imagine entire independent countries of people living in giant pedestrian friendly floating cities. The infrastructure savings are staggering. The competition for citizens from multiple floating governments would be fun to watch. Freedom and limited taxation would spread across the globe.

  8. Reid Greenmun Avatar
    Reid Greenmun

    Of course once the well-armed and well-organized Pirates attack and loot these undefended floating cash cows – the cost of providing individual navies and individual naval air support will cause each floating “nation” to go broke.

    I see rape, murder, and general mayhem, pardon the pun, on the horizon.

    Ops – they didn’t take into account the cost of a modern military to defend them. Too bad. But once the developers got their payday, what do they care?

    Perhaps that is WHY we still have nation states?

    Interesting too – when the first mini-nation is sunk due to storms that exceeded their floting city design limits. Oh well, blub-blub – gone. Scrub floating nation-state-X off the global map, then it becomes just a good dive site for future treasure hunters.

    What religion will these floating cities have?

    Ops – Islam was “allowed” – sorry, the religion of “peace” suddenly becomes the force for at sea oppression – and murder.

    Well, killing “infidels” isn’t really “murder”, now is it for the radical Muslim Jihadists.

    Oh, I’m just being a spoil sport – poking holes in the utopian society that will magically not have the same problems as its land-based neighbors . . .

  9. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Larry: Yes, there was Internet access but it cost 75 cents per minute — a sum I refused to pay. My wife, on the other hand, hopped on the Internet to check her e-mail, and got her company to pay for it! (It’s always easier to justify buying something if someone else is paying for it!)

    Reid: Dude, you have to distinguish between the lifestyle that *you* prefer to lead with those that *others* might prefer to lead. Not everyone shares your tastes and priorities. Do you have a problem with people living in denser, more compact communities if they freely choose to, and if their choices aren’t subsidized?

    Freedom Works: Fascinating website. The idea of a floating city would make a great premise for a science fiction novel. I’m not sure how practical it is. I’m guessing that the insurance costs alone would be a killer. But it’s kind of cool to think about.

  10. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    SHIP OF FOOLS

    Norovirus continues to be a problem on cruise ships. In 2002, there were 25 reported outbreaks, with 2,648 passengers becoming ill from the virus.[4] Outbreak investigations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that transmission among cruise ship passengers is almost wholly person-to-person. Cruise ship water supplies have never been implicated.

    In November 2006, more than 700 passengers and crew members aboard a trans-Atlantic cruise fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea. The outbreak, believed to be norovirus, struck people aboard the Carnival Cruise Lines’ Liberty, one of the world’s largest cruise ships.

    In December 2006, 384 passengers of Freedom of the Seas — the largest cruise ship in the world — contracted the norovirus. At the same time, 97 passengers and 6 [? crew members] of Sun Princess cruise ship appeared to have norovirus symptoms. Weeks earlier, 97 passengers of the same Freedom of the Seas had also contracted the virus.

    In January 2007, several cases were discovered aboard the cruise-liner QE2[5] in what the Center for Disease Control (CDC) called an “unusually large outbreak.” Seventeen percent (276 out of 1,652) of the passengers on board reportedly fell ill. 28 crew members were also ill. The ship was boarded and investigated by members of the CDC while the ship was docked in Acapulco, Mexico. Because of the intensified sanitation efforts of the crew (even going so far as to sanitize poker chips in the ship’s casino), the outbreak was considered well under control. The ship continued its voyage and no passengers cancelled their tickets because of the illness.

    [edit] Notes

  11. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Anonymous: You raised a good point about the increased risk of infection when large numbers of people huddle together in such close quarters. I would have raised that very issue with the ship’s management, but, unfortunately, other than the environmental officer, Holland-America corporate management was totally uncooperative.

    My sense, though, is that we still have a lot to learn from cruise ships in preventing the spread of viruses. Antiseptic stations are omnipresent. Crew members are continually wiping down handrails and other places where people put their hands. And for a couple of days, the ship shut down its whirlpool and took other precautionary measures.

    The fact is, cold and flu viruses spread outside of cruise liners, too, and we, as a society, could do better in preventing it. Perhaps we should adopt more of the cruise liner consciousness.

  12. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    I’ll throw some stuff in the pot.

    Last year, I spent two weeks – yes 14 straight days on the Grand Canyon – my second trip.

    Beyond the sheer beauty and truly wild nature of the canyon and the river is dealing with really simple stuff like how do you get clean water, food, and of course pee and poo… and since we did our own trip – all of these issues were handled by ourselves not paid help.

    These things are a real eye-opener for those who have never had the pleasure!

    If one really wants to appreciate what we have but also truly appreciate what ‘convenience” means – take a trip where all of these things become your personal responsibility – for 14 days.

    Every evening.. we hauled the “unit” from the raft to nestle it in the rocks and every morning – we’d close it up and haul it back to the raft. Fun and armoatic too!

    but even then.. the “connections” to our pampered lives are still there.. for instance – propane fuel… and household bleach for water purification and of course simple little luxuries like TP… and soap for cleanup – oh.. at those double ‘A’ batteries for finding one’s way to the “facility” at O-dark-thirty.

    oh.. and that is .. if you did remember to pack them… 🙂

  13. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Right you are, Larry.

    When I went transatlantic, we had a major electrical failure the second day out, which meant that for the next 27 days electricity could be used for running lights only.

    That meant, no toilet, because it was electrically sanitized. That meant using a bucket, or else the Pilgrim method. Using the bucket when it and you and everthing around you is making periodic 6 ft gyrations is a real lesson in inertia and momentum.

    Then the bucket had to be carried through the dining salon to the deck. Try that with a heavy sea running. It wasn’t long before we named the salon “No Mans Land.”

    The only electronics still running on the boat were two watches I had sealed in plastic before we left. Good thing, because I needed them to work the star sights. Not too shabby for a geographic illiterate. After 18 days I hit Faial island dead on even though we couldn’t see it until 10 miles out.

    We were crowded too. With 7 people on a 40 footer, the nice thing was that, if you got to sleep, the bunk was already warm.

    We had one guy who had real psychologcal problems on the trip, nervous and vomiting the whole way. I couldn’t understand it because otherwise he was OK and decent if inexperienced sailor.

    I think I figured it out later when we got together to look at trip pictures. One of his pictures was a photo of our six-man life raft. He was the smallest guy on the boat.

    Although we purified and filtered the water when we filled the tanks, it somehow went foul, and we had to switch to emergency jerry cans we brought for backup.

    We didn’t have to carry as much as you did: the boat did that for us. We had food for 60 days on board so we ate sumptuously, including fresh baked bread every day. After 20 days, the eggs were kind of stale, though. We cooked with kerosene because propane is often considered a no-no on boats.

    The ocean is different from the grand canyon, but both are majestic in their way. It’s the sort of thing that brings your personal significance in the greater scale of things into sharp perspective.

  14. Darrell -- Chesapeake Avatar
    Darrell — Chesapeake

    Freedom boat. hemmmm.. Freedom from what?

    Where do you store garbage and sewage for 100,000 people? How do you get rid of it?

    Who fights the fires? How does so many people evacuate?

    Slow moving, hug the coast. Hmmmm

    Hey Ray, you are a sailor. Tell the audience what happens when you hug the coast in a ship with little headway.

    Then there’s all those condos. That implies deep draft to maintain stability and rules out many ports. And somewhere in the world, you are going to have to cross open water. Say the Cape of Good Hope, or the Magellan Straight, or the Pacific. Real ships have issues doing that because of the currents, winds and waves.

    Pirates would be the least of their problems.

  15. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    “Hey Ray, you are a sailor. Tell the audience what happens when you hug the coast in a ship with little headway.”

    When I was studying navigation we worked an exercise, taking time to the second, correcting for sextant error, subtracting the refraction and allowing for our height above the water. We worked the figures and and carefully plotted our lines of position to 0.1 minutes of arc. This resulted in a small triangle off the coast and we marked the center of the triangle with a dot.

    “Where are we?”, asked the instructor. One of the students pointed to the dot. In response, the instructor drew a large circle which included the tip of the nearest point of land.

    “No”, said the instructor, “you are somewhere inside that circle.” Where you are is not so important that you lose sight of the fact that you do not wish to hit that point of land.

    All the calculations in the world to figure out where you are don’t help much unless you know where you are going.

    What you say about the ship makes sense. It is the same with cities, the real footprint and real cost is much larger than the apparent footprint and apparent cost. When we consider full locational costs, we should remember that.

    I believe that properly allocating such costs will provide more money to the rural or supporting areas and make them less prone to premature or bad development.

  16. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I don’t know JAB, this cruise ship analogy is just too much of a stretch.
    If you note the news, people are falling off the ships more an dmore. They either vanish or the Coast Guard picks them up.
    As noted by someone earlier, ships can be disease factories. My late dad was a Navy doctor assigned to a Marine Corps amphibian tank battalion during WWII. He was on a transport packed to the gills with Marines and gear headed to Saipan. One Marine got some terribly contagious disease and Dad had to work fast before the entire battalion caught it and was taken out of combat.

  17. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Anonymous 2:10, I’m not saying we should all live on cruise ships. I’m saying we can learn from cruise ships. One of the things we can learn from, incidentally, is in how to manage epidemics.

  18. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Anon 2:10 here. I don’t know, JAB, I’m ready a book about the collision in the 1950s between cruise liners Stockholm and Andrea Doria. Imagine being a passenger aboard. If you’re not crushed to death by the impact, you are thrown across a room. Then you face drowning in cold seas. Even if just a theory, the cruise ship analogy has a fatal flaw. If something goes wrong, everybody goes down. It’s too fast and complete — unlike a societal breakdown (barring a nuclear war).

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