HomeHistoryUncertaintySacrificeServiceSo What?Hard QuestionsFor TeachersResponsesLinks

Habukkuk

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Back to Work Page

The plan was to construct an 11 meter long, 1000 ton (1:50) model for testing.

The walls and floors were made of wood. Ice was added around a refrigeration system. This system circulated cold air to help freeze the ice blocks together.

 

Henry Martens, a CO from Coaldale, Alberta, explains his part in the project.

 

“The next day, we were initiated into our job: constructing a building floating in the icy waters of beautiful Lake Patricia, about 15 miles from camp. The 14-inch outside walls of the building were to be constructed of lightweight aggregate mixed with an abundance of tar. The inside of the building was to be compactly filled with ice sawn from the frozen lake. Machinery in its core was to keep the ice in a frozen state and floating on the lake in summertime. Our job was to carry tar up the gangplank in a wheelbarrow and dump it into the wall frame." [ASP, 124]

When the COs got to the site location they started to build the frame out of wood.  The frame was 30 feet wide, 60 feet long and 20 feet high.

Ice was cut from the lake for the huge ice ship.

The floor was built, tar was mixed with wood chips to fit the ice pieces together.

  The COs were divided into crews, each working on different parts of the project.  A professional pipe fitter was hired to install the refrigeration pipes to keep the ice frozen.  Once completed the ship was pushed into a shed or building.

Even though no one was completely sure about the purpose of the project, rumours started that the project was an aircraft carrier. The Mennonite COs asked to be removed from the project, but their request was denied. They didn't understand that they were only building a model of an aircraft carrier, not a real ship, so they wondered why anyone would build a ship 800 kilometres from the nearest ocean. The COs were confused about the project. Some of them didn't find out about the real purpose of their work until long after the war.

Henry Martens writes:

“The purpose for constructing this floating solid ice building mystified us COs and made no sense. Only after the war did we discover that we had been engaged in a highly secret war effort, for which we might have refused to render service for reasons of conscience if we had been told. It was a trial floating ice pad which, if built large enough, could have served as a landing strip for aircraft somewhere in the ocean.” [ASP, 124]

David Goerzen only found out long after his service what he was helping to build.

 

Abe Dick, for example, only found out when a historian contacted him to ask him about his CO experiences. Only then did he learn that his pacifist principles had been violated in the name of science. Minister John Wiebe visited the camp and described what the men were doing, but he had no idea that what they were doing was contributing to a weapon of war. (Read an English translation of the letter.)

  Some evidence claims that workers wrote in protest that they were being used to build a weapon of war.  David Goerzen does not recall this.

The scientists behind the project were confident that it would work. The tests went well enough that the War Office approved a $75 million budget for the project. But then someone pointed out that it made more sense to use the time, money, and labour on a real aircraft carrier, instead of on a concept that wasn't completely proven.

 

After the government cancelled the project, the wood and metal frame of the giant ice ship was allowed to sink to the bottom of Lake Patricia, where it remains to this day.

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Back to Work Page

Top | Home | History | Uncertainty | Sacrifice | Service | So What? | Hard Questions | For Teachers | Respond | Links | Search | About This Site