Living at sea

[AL_DA_GREAT]

Would it be possible to live on a boat that never goes to land?

Would it be possible to have a nomadic tribe that lives on the ocean?

 

[Quackers]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=152493&highlight=LIVE+BOAT

been done before

 

[wolfigor]

http://webecoist.com/2009/04/27/12-fantastic-floating-cities-and-artificial-islands/

 

[Patroklos]

I've done four months continously, I would not want to do more.

My retirement plan is to sail the world, but never for more than three weeks at sea for a stretch.

 

[History_Buff]

Your problems are fresh water and food. If you have enough electricity, you can produce or recycle the former, but food is tricky. Given that you can't really sustain yourself on seafood alone, you'll need terrestrial produce. Either you build an island that's big enough to grow all the food for the folks who will need to very carefully maintain the soil layer, or you trade with people on land.

Either way, not an overly attractive prospect unless you're doing it as part of a national navy.

 

[Patroklos]

Why can't you live off of sea food alone. You could even grow nori and other algae or harvest seaweed from your boat.

 

[Flying Pig]

Why can't you live off of sea food alone. You could even grow nori and other algae or harvest seaweed from your boat.

I'd hazard you probably can't get all the vitamins and minerals and all the rest of it that you require just from seafood.

 

[emzie]

Uh, I highly doubt it. At some point you'd need to do repairs that'd require dry dock.

I'd hazard you probably can't get all the vitamins and minerals and all the rest of it that you require just from seafood.

So bring them with you.

 

[Patroklos]

I don't think that's the case. As it is there were/are many groups that live almost exclusively off the sea.

 

[emzie]

I don't think that's the case. As it is there were/are many groups that live almost exclusively off the sea.

You can live with vitamin deficiencies, so just because people have made a living from the sea doesn't mean they were as healthy as they could have been. Certain edible seaweeds are an excellent source of calcium, iodine, magnesium... but they're found near shore and even then, not everywhere near shore. They don't grow in the middle of open water. I'm not sure there's much point in having a don't-go-to-shore rule if you need to be within a country's territorial waters to harvest kelp.

As a mariner, you'd know this... would it be feasible to create a hull that wouldn't need dry-dock maintenance over the length of a human lifetime?

edit: with a bit of chemistry knowledge, you could probably extract vitamins from various animals you killed, which might make staying at open sea a bit easier.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Don't forget your orange juice.

 

[Renner]

If you had a large enough vessel I'm sure you could grow what you needed to survive (along with harvesting food from the sea obv). You would need a rather massive pile of money to get it all setup though.

 

[Disgustipated]

I've done four months continously, I would not want to do more.

My retirement plan is to sail the world, but never for more than three weeks at sea for a stretch.

Is that 4 months with no port calls?

There were no wars when I was in (except Iraq no fly zones), so I never went over 30 days without a port call.

Anyways, the problem becomes food. You'd have to have it shipped to you like the Navy (via helicopters now days, but they can use UNREP). You'd also need other supplies like fuel. Life at sea isn't as glamorous as it seems.

 

[History_Buff]

Why can't you live off of sea food alone. You could even grow nori and other algae or harvest seaweed from your boat.

I admit, I had not considered harvesting sea flora. It just seemed that eating only meat would end your life rather quickly.

 

[Glassfan]

I don't think that's the case. As it is there were/are many groups that live almost exclusively off the sea.

But not permanently.

If you had a large enough vessel I'm sure you could grow what you needed to survive (along with harvesting food from the sea obv). You would need a rather massive pile of money to get it all setup though.

There are terrible storms at sea. Ships come upon rocks or break up in a sea state.

So where is this civ? If it were possible, why hasn't it happened? I mean in the history books. Except for some fresh water lake tribes in Peru(?), I've never heard of one. (except in bad science fiction and James Bond movies)

 

[Bud2998]

I admit, I had not considered harvesting sea flora. It just seemed that eating only meat would end your life rather quickly.

Why's that? The Inuit seemed to flourish off their almost all meat diet quite well. It simply requires that you eat all parts of the animals, vital organs included.

 

[holy king]

Why can't you live off of sea food alone. You could even grow nori and other algae or harvest seaweed from your boat.

ever heard of scurvy, sailor?

 

[Glassfan]

I repeat - where are they?

 

[Flying Pig]

Don't forget your orange juice.

ever heard of scurvy, sailor?

This seems to be the biggest problem. Limes don't generally grow underwater.

 

[Cutlass]

Reading about the European colonization of the US, those early settlers that relied on preserved food over the winters had a great deal of scurvy. Those who lived by hunting and fishing did not. So fresh meat and seafood, as opposed to preserved, seems to meet the needs for health.