The Wyoming – Proof Noah’s Ark Was Impossible

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Creationists believing in the literal truth of the Great Flood / Noah’s Ark myth are often challenged on how they could possibly have fitted millions of pairs of animals on board the ark, or even rounded up the animals between the Ark’s completion and the start of the Flood. What wasn’t credibly challenged before the 20th century was whether a big enough wooden ship could be built and kept seaworthy enough. In 1909, the US cargo ship, The Wyomng was to prove the Ark impossible, without even trying. The Wyoming was a six masted schooner 450 feet in length, and one of the biggest wooden ships ever built in recorded maritime history. The few ships contending for the title met the same tragic fate. It’s only steam engines were used to raise and lower its sails mechanically rather than manually. It travelled by sail, as the pre-industrial era Ark would have done, as eight rowers could not move such a vessel. The Wyoming's main cargo was coal. It’s voyages were mostly around the US coastal waters The ship’s long pine plankings twisted and warped badly at sea and the ship constantly leaked. Pumping engines were used in increasing desperation, before the ship finally sank with all fourteen hands near Massachusetts in 1924. The disaster ended the whole notion of building bigger and better wooden ships in the age of iron ships. The Wyoming was built by professional shipwrights and engineers, and crewed by highly experienced sailors. The disaster proved to be a serious nail in the coffin for the Noah’s Ark story’s most ardent believers. This is because; 1/. The Ark was believed to be bigger than the biggest wooden ships that were ever known to have been built, and they all failed without exception. 2/. The Ark was supposedly built by a farmer, his wife and three sons, and their wives, who also served as crew, zoologists and vets to over three million species during a storm ravaged continuous year long voyage. 3/. The Wyoming had a crew of fourteen professional sailors and an inert, stable cargo that did not need feeding, but its voyages were mostly in waters close to the coastlines, and they still needed continuous stops for repairs. Their ship eventually fell apart too much to survive. 4/. Even without its cargo, the Ark could not have been engineered, built, or sailed by such an inexperienced crew and it would have snapped apart and sank just as the Wyoming did. Game over, Noah! Arthur Chappell