Concrete ship
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Concrete ships are ships built of concrete instead of more traditional materials, like steel and wood. The most famous of this sort of ship is the small fleet constructed by the United States Navy at the end of World War I. These ships were made from concrete instead of steel due to the materials shortages experienced during the war. The war ended before more than a few of the ships were built, and those that were never saw use in more than a transportation role.
The oldest known concrete ship was a dingy built by Joseph Louis Lambot in Southern France in the year 1848. The boat was featured in the 1855 World's Fair held in France. An Italian engineer, Carlo Gabellini, built barges and small ships out of concrete in the 1890s. The most famous of his ships was the Liguria.
1910s saw the building of several concrete ships in UK. One of these ships, the Violette, was built in 1917 and is currently used as a boating clubhouse on the River Medway in England. This makes her the oldest concrete ship still afloat.
On August 2, 1917, N.K. Fougner of Norway launched the first ocean-going concrete ship, an 84-foot long boat named Namsenfjord. With the success of the ship, several more small concrete vessels were built. In 1917, when the United States finally entered World World I and steel became scarce while the demand for ships went up. The U.S. government invited N.K. Fougner to head a study into the feasibility of concrete ships.
At the same time, businessman W. Lesie Comyn took up the initiative to build concrete ships on his own and formed the San Francisco Ship Building Company (in Oakland, California) to begin constructing concrete ships. He hired Alan Macdonald and Victor Poss to design the first American concrete ship, a steamer named the SS Faith.
The Faith was launched March 18, 1918. She cost $750,000 to build. She was used to carry cargo for trade until 1921, when she was sold and scrapped as a breakwater in Cuba.
President Woodrow Wilson finally approved the Emergency Fleet Corporation program which oversaw the construction of 24 concrete ships for the war. However, only 12 were under construction and none of them had been completed by the time the war ended. The 12 ships were completed and sold to private companies who used them for light-trading, storage and scrap.
World War II led to shortages in steel supply. In 1942, the U.S. government contracted McCloskey & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to construct a new fleet of 24 concrete ships. Construction of the fleet started in July, 1943 in Tampa, Florida. Innovations in cement mixing and composition technology made these ships stronger than the World War I efforts.
Other companies were contracted to build barge ships. These too were large vessels that lacked engines to propell them. Instead, they were used for storage and towed around by other ships.
After the war, several of the ships were turned into a floating breakwater in Canada and ten more were sunk as a breakwater in Virginia.
Although the end of WW II marked the end of large-scale concrete ship building, to this day, smaller recreational boats are still being made from concrete.
In Europe, Ferro Concrete Barges (FCBs) played a crucial role in World War II operations, particularly in the D-Day Normandy Landings as part of the Mulberry harbour defences. These were used for fuel and munitions transportation and as floating pontoons. Some were fitted with engines and used as mobile canteens and troop carriers. Some of these vessels survive as abandoned wrecks in the Thames Estuary; two remain in civil use as moorings at Westminster. The most notable wartime FCB, previously beached at Canvey Island, was destroyed by vandals 22 May 2003.
Today
Concrete ships are no longer in use; however several live on in museums or natural barriers. New Jersey, on the Atlantic coast of the United States of America, has at least one still visible in Cape May.