Noah’s Ark inspires modern rescue vessel

Critics who say that no useful insights come from creation science can now eat their words. A new rescue vessel based on Noah’s Ark proves them wrong.

The Wall Street Journal reports that ISE Industry of Japan has designed something not seen in 4400 years: a lifeboat for the land. The designer took his inspiration from Noah’s Ark, and gave specific credit to God as the Best Naval Architect that ever was.

The ISE Ark

The company began work on the concept a week after the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami. As damaging as the earthquake was, the tsunami was worse. It crested far higher than anyone anticipated. (The tsunami, not the earthquake, caused the meltdown at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station.) ISE official Norio Yamamoto told the Journal that his company wanted a vessel that could protect people if another big wave washed over the ground that they stood on. Seeking higher ground was not enough, because there was no ground high enough to avoid the water.

That is exactly what destroyed the human race, and all the animals, in the Global Flood, 4400 years ago. Only one vessel—Noah’s Ark—survived the event and protected its eight-person crew and its cargo of animals.

ISE Industry used Noah’s Ark as the model for their largest rescue vessel. That vessel is not nearly as large as the original Noah’s Ark. But its proportions are very close to Noah’s proportions.

God instructed Noah how to construct the ark to survive the Great Flood because God was the only one who knew what it would take…Our thinking is that perhaps there is only God’s way left.

The illustration in the WSJ article shows three models, one round, one cubical, and one long. The long model looks most like Noah’s Ark. All three seem to draw half their total height in the water. Tim Lovett (Noah’s Ark: Thinking Outside the Box) predicted that Noah’s Ark also drew fifteen cubits, half its height of thirty.

Sea trials have been very promising. All three models are seaworthy even when severely overloaded. The six-seater, for example, can stay afloat even with 27 passengers aboard. This resolves the obvious “lifeboat dilemma” in favor of taking on as many passengers as can squeeze in.

ISE’s models hold anywhere from 2 to 25 people. Prices vary from 380,000 yen to 2 million yen for a 25-seat longboat.

Noah’s Ark and the ISE Ark compared

A model of Noah's Ark under construction. Credit: Creation Museum, taken and used by permission

Noah’s Ark was 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in beam, and 30 cubits in height. Lovett (and Morris and Whitcomb in The Genesis Flood) concluded that Noah’s Ark drew 15 cubits. The Bible (Genesis 7:20) says that the Flood waters rose to 15 cubits above the highest ground. This, then, was the shallowest depth that Noah’s Ark had to clear during its 150-day voyage.

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Lovett, in Thinking Outside the Box, says that the Ark’s proportions struck the best balance of strength, stability, and the ability to ride the waves without injuring or killing everyone and every living thing on board. A taller ship might capsize. A longer ship might break in two in rough seas. A broader ship would give everyone a rough ride.

The long-model ISE Ark is much higher for its length and beam than Noah’s Ark was. All three models probably have one thing that Noah’s Ark did not have: ballast, or something to weigh down the bottom so that the vessel will stay upright. The ballast might be part  of the hull. (Noah’s Ark was made of wood; ISE builds its arks of steel.)

A more apt name for the project would be a direct translation of the Hebrew name, tebah, which means lifeboat.

This is the most spectacular instance on record of an industrialist using insight from the Bible record to develop a product. (ISE has taken 20 orders thus far for its various models.) One of the most common criticisms of creation theory is that it has yielded no practical scientific insight or invention. That criticism is no longer valid.

Featured image: Artist’s concept of Noah’s Ark under construction in a desert. Credit: Ark Encounter LLC/Answers in Genesis, used by permission.