WW2- Battleships / Aircraft Carriers out of Ice or Icebergs?

A british inventor made the stuff accidently, He found that if you make a solution of 14% saw dust and 86% water, and freeze it, the ice is extremely hard, perfect for making floating platforms or docks, not quite boats, however most of the war took place in europe or warmer places, and even in britain the sea melted the ice.

After giving up the plan they found that it was a useful floating explosive, when bombe were inserted the ice would shatter and the compacted saw dust ignite making a floating fire sort of bomb.

Hope this has helped

G.R.Smith

The Battleship became obsolete more or less at the outset of WW2. You will recall that the Royal Navy destroyed most of the Nazi fleet of pocket battleships. How? The RN had lots of aircraft carriers - that's how. They flew canvas and wire biplanes [Swordfish] and dropped torpedos mostly which either seriously damaged a battleship or else sunk the damn thing. The last Battleship built by the Brits was HMS Vanguard - I have been aboard this ship way back in the 1940s at Navy Days, Portsmouth Royal Navy Dockyard. I must way it was bloody impressive to a boy of 9. In a modern war a single figher from a ship such as the USS [whatever carrier] could do more damage than all the fighting ships of WW2 put together and that ain't no joke. Think nuke. Who flew these Swordfish to kill the Nazi pocket battleships? One of these pilots was Laurence Olivier who flew about 650 sorties against the enemy. He was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot - actually a Lieutenant in the 'Wavy Navy' RNVR - Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.

Pyke build an example of a "Pykecrete" barge on lake in Canada. The forms are still there on the bottom of the lake, but that is as far as it went.

Ingalls and Kaiser were able to build "Jeep" Carriers faster using proven shipbuilding methods rather than risking unproven technology.

Considered, yes. Actually did it seriously, no. The usefulness of something like this would be extremely limited. It would melt away anywhere you used it, requiring constant replacement. And if it didn't melt evenly the whole thing could flip over at random, giving it an even shorter useful life.

Yes i have heard of it - it never actually happened as far as I know but the idea was been mooted for 50 years or so. It was for providing a platform for Planes not as a Warship. sort of a floating Carrier deck.

Yes, made from 14% sawdust or wood pulp and 86% ice. Proposed by Geoffrey Pyke, the "material " was named pykrete. see source.

Yes they did. The idea was to mix sawdust with the ice to make it more stable.