As has been stated many times in many other articles in TMP2, the critical logistical factor in the development of marine settlement is transportation and the chief obstacle to date to the successful colonization of the sea has not been any lack of technology for building and living at sea but rather the severe gaps in cost/performance of contemporary transportation systems when it comes to serving locations in the mid-ocean. Though we often consider the world as ‘shrinking’ thanks to contemporary transportation and are used to the notion that any point on the globe is a day or two away, the reality is that much of the world has become less cost-effectively and conveniently accessible since World War II with the loss of several key classes of transportation including the multi-use ‘packet