You know it’s gonna be a good article when…
a) All it’s about is the relative safety of the hull form of the ark vs. other hull forms
- In other words, it has nothing to do with surviving actual conditions for a period of time but rather a relative measure vs. other hull forms
b) The article claims the facts of the ark are enough to ‘warrant the attention of naval architects’
- Hmm, how many navy ships are built like the ark. Even floating barges? How about exactly… zero!
- Again, as Noah's Ark: Sea Trials, points out, the 103 meter Pretoria in 1901 required steel reinforcement and steam powered pumps to fight the constant flex-induced leaking - others a bit smaller (like the Wyoming that was 100 meters sunk in 1924) and the 99 meter Santiago (sunk in 1918) also show exactly why the naval architects disregard such mythical dimensions of a boat
c) So how did they figure out what the hull was like? Two main ways…
- The ‘reasonable (common sense) assumptions of naval engineers’ - I am quoting the AiG article you linked. Mind you they have all of modern technology and physics/engineering in their brain before they start assuming common sense things
- The highlight of the article for me: They figured out the hull’s form based upon the explorers who claim to have found the remains of the ark
d) This article is a goldmine really. I love that ‘no special mention about the draft is found in the Bible’ - gee I wonder why the details of the height of submergence of the actual ark aren’t included in the Bible? Anyways, the whole beginning of their calculations are based assumption after assumption
- The assumption in this part is that the draft of the ship is 15 cubits - this is because the ark is 30 cubits high and the waters went 15 cubits over the highest mountain
- If that’s not arbitrary and bad enough, then they calculate the center of gravity assuming that the animals were evenly distributed by weight on the 3 decks or possibly the animals were distributed 2:2:1 from the bottom deck upwards. Riiight, that was what Noah was also doing as the animals came marching, weighing them and calculating how to properly distribute the center of gravity of the boat
- Yeah, I can’t even go on at this point
In conclusion, despite my criticisms, reading the article is pretty awesome and makes me love Koreans all the more. I’ve been in several Korean churches, had Korean roommates, and this reminds me of all of them in the most heart warming way.