LOOMING over the horizon from the sea you spot an enormous shape – and as it gets closer it gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
It is the Freedom Ship – five times larger than the biggest vessels in the world at more than a mile long and carrying 100,000 passengers.
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Designed to be much more than a cruise liner, this vessel is a gigantic floating city where people live and work.
The enormous vessel would be on a never-ending voyage around the world – traversing all the seven seas.
Going from Britain – it would head down past France into the Mediterranean, circle round Africa and into the Indian Ocean.
It would then circle round Australia, up towards China, before then heading across the Pacific and down the coast of the Americas.
Freedom Ship would only stop to take on supplies that could not be dropped off by aircraft.
The ship’s entire top deck is a massive flat runway for planes to carry tourists and permanent residents to come and go.
Passengers would travel up and down the incredible mile-long vessel on an onboard tramway system.
And there would be a fleet of ferries cruising back and forth from the ship to take people back to land.
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On board there would be schools, shops, hospitals, gyms, restaurants – anything you would expect to find a typical city back on land.
Developers hope the ship would have 40,000 full time residents, 30,000 daily visitors, 10,000 hotel guests and 20,000 time crew.
Should we want to live on the ship – luxurious waterview apartments could cost you up to £9million.
But more modest units start from just £150,000.
The ship’s decks are layered with glass and open air promenades providing the incredible views over the ocean.
Freedom Ship would one of the largest manmade structures ever built and would dwarf all other ships at sea.
Wonder of the Seas is the world’s largest cruise ship – and it is five times smaller than Freedom Ship.
She is also five times larger than the world’s biggest warship USS Gerald R. Ford, and six times larger than the Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth.
And she is almost seven times bigger than the infamous ocean liner Titanic.
But while lots of these incredible concepts often take few stops off the drawing board – there have been multiple attempts to build Freedom Ship.
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She was first proposed in the 1990s – and has since been moved between different firms and investors.
The original design seems to be in the hands of American based Freedom Cruise Line International.
Plans appear to be still underway – but no construction has yet been laid down, and it is unclear were the funding would come from.
It was originally dreamed up by Florida engineer Norman Nixon, who died in 2012.
Roger Gooch, CEO-Director of Freedom Cruise Line International, said in 2020 that they hoped to begin construction in Indonesia and Singapore.
But he also appealed for investors to come forward to help fund the construction.
Another company, Indian firm Kanethara Marine, also seems to claim ownership of the design – calling it interchangeably “Freedom Ship” and “Floating City”.
Vigil Kanethara, CEO of Floating City Limited, appears to be based between Mumbai and London – and his firm is listed on Companies House.
It is unclear how the two different firms are related – but Mr Kanethara left a LinkedIn message for Mr Gooch saying he is “proud to become a part of [such a] notable historic project”.
And in a 2019 interview with Bright Sun Films on YouTube, Mr Gooch was optimistic – predicting it would have significant investment by 2020.
“82 per cent chance this is going to go,” said the businessman.
“If the demand wasn’t there, I would probably give up the project – I just hope it gets done within my lifetime.”
