Well, no, Vegapunk is a government scientist who came from a different place than the clockwork town you speak of and even if he did build a flying ship, there's no way the government wouldn't be in the loop and want it confiscated or destroyed if they weren't the ones he built it for. And they would Buster Call any town capable of building one and we know it.<br/><br/>Even a ship with just paddlewheels and an engine would be a big step up over most other ships of that time. Instead of just relying on wind and not being able to fight against currents, we alone would have that. Isn't that satisfactory enough? I know in the fourth One Piece movie the bad guy had a huge steam-powered ship, that could be the model for what we could use.<br/><br/>Plus if the ship could fly that would make my character's swimming ability next to useless.