Concrete ships are ships with hulls built primarily with concrete reinforced with steel rather than steel or wood. There are also similar ships made of ferrocement. The advantages of concrete construction are that materials are cheaper and readily available, maintenance is easier, they are fire-resistant, and the ships experience fewer vibrations. The disadvantages are that their labor and operating costs are higher, the ships weigh more, and they are less durable than steel.

During the late 19th century, there were concrete river barges and pleasure craft in Europe, and during both World War I and World War II, steel shortages led the US military to order the construction of small fleets of ocean-going concrete ships. Few concrete ships were completed in time to see wartime service during World War I, but concrete ships and barges were used to support Allied forces in World War II.

History

thumb|upright|Blueprints for a concrete boat

thumb|Concrete boat constructed by Walter Dowsey hauled out in [[Chicago]]

thumb|The Namsenfjord

First efforts

The oldest known example is a rowboat built by Joseph-Louis Lambot in France in 1849. Italy, Panama, She was used to carry bulk cargo for trade until 1921. On April 12, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson authorized the Emergency Fleet Corporation concrete ship program, which oversaw the construction of concrete ships for the war. The U.S. government also contracted with two companies in California for the construction of eighty concrete barges.

One wartime barge, previously beached at Canvey Island, was removed in 2005 by the local sailing club, whose land it was on, for fear it was a "danger to children using it as a playground".

One concrete barge under tow by Jicarilla (ATF-104) was lost off Saipan during a typhoon, and another barge damaged the Moreton Bay Pile Light in Brisbane, but the rest served admirably.

Post-war

After the war, concrete vessels have been used as pontoons, barges, and offshore concrete structures around the world,

In Europe, especially the Netherlands, concrete is still used to build some of the barges on which houseboats are built.

Remaining wartime ships

Surviving wartime concrete ships are no longer in use as ships. Several continue in use in various forms, mostly as museums or breakwaters.

Europe

One of the concrete ships built for the first Ministry of Shipping, the , lies abandoned in the River Moy, just outside the town of Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland.

A concrete barge, the Cretetree, is beached in the harbour of the Isle of Scalpay near Tarbert, Harris, Scotland, . It was built by Aberdeen Concrete Ships, and completed in 1919.

The Purton Hulks, a collection of vessels intentionally beached at Purton during the first half of the twentieth century as a method to prevent coastal erosion, includes eight ferro-concrete barges.

The remains of a British coaster, Violette, can be seen at Hoo, Kent, England.

A large collection of abandoned concrete barges are seen at River Thames in Rainham, London.

The wreckage of the , a small Nazi-era German tanker, is visible in Dąbie Lake, near Szczecin, Poland. It was sunk during a Soviet air raid on 20 March 1945. In the late 1950s Polish authorities decided to lift it and tow it to another location to be converted into swimming pools, but during that operation it began sinking again, so it was abandoned in shallow water, where it has remained since.

<gallery mode="packed">

File:The_ss_creteboom_side_view.jpg|

File:Boat_graveyard_-_geograph.org.uk_-_103070.jpg|At Purton

File:Ferro-concrete_barges,_Rainham_waterfront_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1022440.jpg|At Rainham

File:1109 Urlich Finsterwalde Wreck.jpg|Ulrich Finsterwalder

</gallery>

During the German occupation of Greece (1942–1944) during World War II, the German Army built 24 concrete cargo vessels for transporting goods to various Greek islands, including Crete. These were constructed in the Perama shipbuilding area of Piraeus. After the war, many of the vessels were used as piers (e.g., in Rafina, ) and breakwaters (e.g., in Agios Georgios, Methana, ).

Due to the need to deliver necessary raw materials (such as oil, weapons, ammunition, food and drugs) through mined river currents, Adolf Hitler ordered the production of fifty concrete ships for different purposes. Most were concrete barges made for oil transportation from Romania, and needed raw materials that were driven to the Baltic front. A smaller number of ships was intended for transporting food (specializing in cold storages). The most valuable ships were the specialized ship-hospitals, which evacuated seriously wounded and "important" soldiers to German hospitals along rivers.

Japan

Several concrete ships were grounded on the west beach of Iwo To (Iwo Jima) in Japan, , to make a breakwater by the US forces in 1945. Most of them were broken by typhoons but one was used as a pier.

Japan built four concrete ships named Takechi Maru () during World War II. After the war, two of them turned into a breakwater in Kure, Hiroshima, .

<gallery mode="packed">

File:US Navy 070314-N-4124C-162 Dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) steams close to shore of Iwo Jima while on station to support the 62nd Commemoration of the Battle of Iwo Jima.jpg|At Iwo To

File:Concrete ship.jpg|Takechi Maru No.2

</gallery>

North America

The largest collection is at Powell River, British Columbia, , where a lumber mill uses ten floating concrete ships as a breakwater, known as The Hulks.

The Kiptopeke Breakwater in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, , is formed by nine sunken concrete ships built in World War II.

, a former oil tanker, lies abandoned off the coast of Cayo Las Brujas, Cuba, , where it served as a hotel, then as a base for divers.

The wreckage of is visible off Sunset Beach near Cape May, New Jersey, .

The tanker is located northwest of the fishing pier at Seawolf Park in Galveston, . The ship was launched the same day Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, ending the war, so it never saw wartime duty and instead was used as an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico.

The tanker was purchased and turned into an amusement pier, and is still visible at Seacliff State Beach, near Aptos, California, . It broke up during a January 2017 storm.

The , launched in 1921 in Wilmington, North Carolina, later became the , a gambling ship off Coronado, California, that ran aground on December 31, 1936. The wreck is periodically exposed by strong storm tides.

The vessel aground in the surf at Shipwreck Beach on the north shore of Lanai, Hawaii is the wreck of YOG-42, , a concrete gasoline barge built for the US Navy in 1942 and placed in service in 1943. The wreck is often misidentified as a Liberty ship.

The remains of the Col. J. E. Sawyer can be seen near the in Charleston Harbor, , South Carolina.

The wreckage of the is visible slightly south of Bimini Island in the Bahamas, . It is a popular snorkeling site and boating landmark in the area.

<gallery>

File:Powell River Aerial 2004.jpg|At Powell River

File:Walkway at Kiptopeke State Park.jpg|At Kiptopeke

File:Atlantus.jpg|

File:S.S. Selma, Galveston, TX - DSC 0125.jpg|

File:SS Palo Alto - DSC 7069cementBoat-w.JPG|

File:SS Monte Carlo Shipwreck 2010-01-30.jpg|

File:Shipwreck - Shipwreck Beach.jpg|YOGN 42

</gallery>

See also

  • Capella (concrete ship)
  • Concrete canoe
  • Concrete Ship, former concrete hospital ship
  • Trefoil-class concrete barge

Footnotes

References

  • History of ferro-concrete ships
  • Comprehensive list of ferro-concrete builders
  • Images of construction and launch of the Cretemanor from the National Monuments Record
  • "Pour in the Concrete and Take Out a Ship", February 1919 Popular Science
  • "How Pour Ships Are Made", June 1943, Popular Science