There is a practical limit to how large a wooden vessel can be built and still hold together in heavy swells. -------------------- Jehovah told Noah to make the ark 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. (Genesis 6:15) According to one conservative estimate, this would make the ark about 134 m long, 22 m wide, and 13 m high. It thus had a gross volume of some 40,000 cu m. The ark’s length was six times its width and ten times its height. Many modern ships have similar proportions, although for them the length-to-breadth ratio is chosen with regard to the power required to move them through the water. The ark, on the other hand, had only to float. The manner in which vessels respond to wind and waves is called seakeeping behavior. This too is related to a vessel’s proportions. The Scriptures do not say how strong the waves and wind were, but likely both wind and waves would have been powerful and changeable, even as they can be today. The longer and harder the wind blows, the higher and farther apart are the waves. In addition, any seismic action could have produced strong waves.God told Noah to use a length-to-depth ratio of 10 to 1. Later shipbuilders would learn only by hard experience that such a ratio can best accommodate extreme stresses. Fortunately for the human race ''Noah did according to all that God had commanded him. He did just so.'' - Gen 6:22
