I think ships are cool. Sea-going, space-faring, whatever. Ships are sort of ultimate biospheres in a way, don’tcha think? I know that’s completely not the right word, but they’re (generally) enclosed enviornments of one sort or another, largely dependant on what they carry aboard to sustain the crew. Sure, on a sea-going ship, you’ve got the option of rain for water and birds and fish for food, but that’s assuming it rains and the water you’re in is populated by, y’know, fish. Way back when sails (or, oars) were the only way to travel on the water, ships used to take along livestock to supplement their food supply, which generally consisted of stale, maggot-infested biscuits.

When you think of what needs to go into a (fictional) starship — artificial gravity generators, oxygen recyclers, power, etcetra-etcetra — it just sort of boggles the mind to think of what the designers will go through to store everything into as small a place as possible.

Anyway.

So this post is about ships of the ocean-going variety. Rather … Lego versions of the ocean going variety.

First up, and a favorite of mine, is an attempt by Brickshelf user “ToiletseatPhilosophy” to use specialized computer software (rendering in Lego, of course) to virtually create a British man-of-war out of virtual Lego (to me, his creation looks like HMS Victory). I just hope he does the whole damn ship!

Second up, and totally equally impressive, is what is termed “The Yamato Project.” The Yamato was the largest battleship ever constructed, built by Japan in 1940, she was sunk only a few months before the end of the war. “The Yamato Project” appears to be an attempt to render the ship in Lego … however, with no interior spaces (otherwise, this would totally trump the man-of-war above).

And, Jules asked about my next Lego project. It’s still a little bit away, but I think, after having read most of the Patrick O’Brien series, that my next project will have to be the HMS Surprise (which, thankfully, is nowhere near as big as Victory).