Freedom Ship, a super platform floating city

Envision the idealize place for living and running a business. Envision friendly society where you are feeling safe and secured. Envision open space and appealing entertainments. And, at last, imagine all this moving all around the world continually. All this lies in the conception of the Freedom Ship, a project not only for building the greatest vessel in the world, but for creating a unique mobile community. The Freedom ship will provide cosmopolitan, worldwide, residential, full-spectrum, resort city which will travel the world once every 3 years. There will be opportunities for daily living, traveling and even owning a business.

The initial proposal for this amazing project came in the late 90s by Norman Nixon, engineer from Arkansas and Freedom Ship International company founder. When a search of natural and manmade islands failed to turn up a suitable alternate location to East Caicos, one of Freedom city’s original backers suggested building an island that could visit different countries each month. Strange as this suggestion seemed, it was something Nixon had actually done before. During the 1980s, he was part of a team of engineers who built a $1 billion modular ethylene plant in Japan and then towed it as more than 100 modules to Saudi Arabia, where it was reassembled. Encouraged by Nixon’s hands-on experience in seagoing modular construction -and the fact that he has licenses to practice structural, electrical, sanitary, and civil engineering- his early supporters elected to follow his dream to sea. “And so,” he says, “the Freedom Ship project was born.”

The design team responsible for launching this project points out that this is not a just a city on a boat, but a “super platform.” Freedom Ship has been visualized as a self-contained vessel with ultra-luxurious amenities. The 20+ story superstructure will be nearly a mile long (4,320ft), 725ft wide and 340ft tall and be will equipped with all of the features that any modern city might have, including a $200 million hospital with a first rate medical facility practicing Western and Eastern medicine, 10,000 hotel units, a world class casino, a ferryboat transportation system (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 school system offering K-12 and college education 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, 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, a 3,800-foot (1,158-m) landing strip which will serve private planes and some small commercial aircraft that carry no more than 40 passengers, hangars for private aircraft, a marina for residents’ yachts, one of the world’s largest shopping malls, a golf driving range, bicycle paths and 200 open acres for recreation of outdoor park, recreation, exercise and community space for the enjoyment of residents and visitors. Just like a big city, Freedom Ship will have a security force onboard that will patrol the ship at all times and the ship’s entire crew will receive security training as well. An electronic security system will be installed to offer further protection to residents. In addition to all these benefits, Freedom Ship will also be environmentally friendly, according to its developers. There will be no sewage treatment plant and no sewage to spill. The ship will use incinerator toilets, which cost about $3,000 apiece, to burn all sewage. The ashes will be put in the flower beds. Waste oil will be burned in an exhaust steam plant to generate electricity, instead of being dumped in the ocean. All used glass, paper and metal will be recycled and sold. Freedom Ship International estimates that each resident will produce 80 percent less waste on the ship than at his or her current home on land.

It will take a tremendous amount of engine power to push the gigantic ship through the water. The vessel will be equipped with 100 diesel engines that can generate 3,700 horsepower each. Developers project the cost of each engine to be about $1 million. That may give an idea of how expensive the project is, although the total cost of Freedom Ship has not officially been released but for a vessel that promises to offer so many feasibilities, it is estimated that the construction cost of the Freedom Ship could total to over US$ 11 billion. The ship’s high construction cost will be passed on to residents. People who want to live on board can purchase their homes for prices which range from $150,000 for a small unit to $40m for something larger. There will be 20,000 residential units and in total and developers are being encouraged to pre-purchase space and sell it on in the same way as their real estate counterparts do on dry land. 

Freedom Ship will be home to more than 60,000 people, including residents and all of the personnel that will be required to maintain the ship. The floating city will continuously circle the world and will travel to most of Earth’s coastal regions, offering residents the ability to see the entire globe without leaving their home. All the ship’s employees will be given food, housing, uniforms, medical and dental care, and a continuing education program. Application forms for workers on either the construction or staff of the ship when it is finally launched have been placed on the internet and talks are under way with the Nova Southwestern University to ensure that an established academic institution will be responsible for running the degree courses on the ship.

Roger Gooch, the CEO of Freedom Cruise Line International from his Florida office stated that they already have reservations for 15% (of the units). He said that the hope was that the vessel would have a “global environment”, with a large mixture of different nationalities and ages. It was not meant to be seen as a retirement cruise ship but one where people could run their businesses and educate their children. As a sales incentive, the company’s material points out that there will be no local taxes to pay including income tax, real estate tax, sales tax, business tax and import duties. However, residents will have to abide by federal tax laws in their home country. Gooch is also pleased to announce that Freedom Ship’s Board of Directors has determined that primary construction operations will commence in Indonesia and Singapore. Design processes are currently underway and live real time construction operations are planned to be provided to the global audience via on site 24/7 webcams. In addition, Freedom Cruise Line is currently open to dialogue with all interested parties or entities relative to either stock equity investments and or joint venture relationships as well.