During last night’s entertaining LAP Forum Open House there was a comment about finding Noah’s Ark plans and notes. Well, that’s just silly. However, I did find Bishop John Wilkins’s 1668 proof on how all the animals would fit in the Ark. With the the biblical measurements, the animal load and arrangement figured and a little reverse engineering you can create your own plans.
The basic measurement were: length-300 cubits, breadth-50 cubits, height-30 cubits. Bishop Wilkins provided addtional help:
“…it was divided into three stories, each of 10 or 15 foot high, besides one cubit allowed for the declivity of the roof in the upper story. And, ’tis agreed upon as most probably, that the lower story was assigned to contein all the species of beasts, the middle story for their food, and the upper story, in one part of it, for the birds and their food, and the other part for Noah, his family and utensils.”
The Bishop, a most sincere and helpful man, also made a scientific table to help classify and separate the animals by species and body proportion: Beasts feeding on hay, Beasts feeding on insects, Carnivorous Beasts. If an animal is a “mungrel”, such as a mule, they are left out. Crocodiles, seals, turtles get to fend for themselves as, “…such kind of Animals as can abide in the water to their own devises.”
There you have it. Gather some hearty and handsome timber framers, hand over the cubit conversions to George Walker and Jim Tolpin and you are good to go.
–Suzo Ellison
