Developed, at least in concept, by a Broadway musical set designer, the Whale Ship is another mighty ship that never came to be. However, interestingly, while the ship remained something of a pipe dream for its designers, it did have an impact on ship design.
Conceived by industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes, through his private design studio, the ship formed part of the design studios’ more ambitious designs including a bubble-shaped car, a nine-deck amphibious plane, and a vision for a future city called “Futurama”. Before you ask the question, yes this is what inspired the animated sitcom.
The studio’s concept for a new ultra- modern ocean liner, the Whale Ship, was first unveiled in the early-1930s, and it was unlike anything ever seen before.
5.
Back in the 1980s, plans were afoot to build a
ship so large, that it would dwarf even the mighty Oasis of the Seas. The brainchild of one Knut Kloster, the World City Phoenix was a truly ambitious design for a ship.
Kloster was a Norwegian tycoon of cruise ships who co-founded the Norwegian Caribbean Line, today known as the Norwegian Cruise Line. Famed for his fantastical visions of the future, Kloster dreamed of an enormous cosmopolitan floating city that would offer its patrons unapparelled luxury and freedom to roam the oceans of the world.
At that time, the largest ocean liner afloat was The Norway, with a total displacement of around 70,000 tonnes. The World City Phoenix, by Kloster’s estimation would exceed 250,000 tons, be 1,247 feet (380 meters) long, 253 feet (77 meters) wide, have 21 decks, and would be able to accommodate
more than 5,00 guests and about 2,600 crew members.
The ship would feature public spaces, with guest accommodations around the outside of the hull. Bars, cafes, restaurants, shops, boutiques, art galleries, spa and fitness centers, pools, jogging tracks, cinemas, casinos, places of worship, libraries, museums, planetariums, TV and music production facilities, even a university campus were all to be included within the ship’s long list of facilities.
The ship was to be so large that it would even incorporate a marina to host guests’ own private vessels for those ports too small for the ship to moor at.
This behemoth of a ship would be powered by two 20-MW diesel- electric motors supplemented by eight diesel generators. The ship
would also come with two variable- pitch propellers that would be 7 meters in diameter. Bow thrusters and four stern thrusters were to also be part of the design to maximize the ship’s maneuverability.
At the time, some industry experts projected the ship would cost somewhere in the order of $800 million to $1.2 billion to construct.
Knut Kloster defined the World City Phoenix as “the largest and most exciting passenger vessel on earth, a premier resort, a fabulous destination in and of itself, a world-class conference and business center.”
Although Kloster’s World City was never built, in 2020, marine consultancy Knud E. Hanson announced the designs for a much smaller version - an expedition cruise ship named Phoenix World Village.
The Report • June 2022 • Issue 100 | 67
Resembling a cross between a more modern submarine and a torpedo, and incorporated other design features that were way ahead of their time. The vessel’s size, for example, was far beyond anything seen in an ocean liner at the time, and her design was completely revolutionary.
According to the concept art, she would have been 1800 feet (549m) long and weighed 82,000 tonnes. The vessel would have enough room to carry 2,000 passengers and be crewed by around 900. Apparently, though not really explained as to how, the ship would be fast enough to reduce the journey between Europe and America to a single day. There was also a hangar that would fold open and extend out as a platform for launching the aircraft. Although it is unclear how the planes would return to their hangar.
While a model of the ship was built, no serious attempt to translate the concept into reality was undertaken. Though the model of the ship did feature in a 1938 Hollywood film, “The Big Broadcast”, that satirized the intense rivalry of ocean liner companies.
Although the ship never made it off the drawing board, some of the features of the ship would become standard in modern modes of transport. For example, Geddes’ attention to streamlining in his ship design.
Today, great pains are taken to make transportation like cars, trains, etc, as streamlined as possible. Her shape is also very reminiscent of modern nuclear submarines. While there is no apparent link between the Whale Ship and modern submarine designs, the resemblance is, we think you’ll agree, almost uncanny.
The World City Phoenix would have been a literal floating city
Photo source: knudehansen
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