Concrete ships are built primarily with ferrocement ( reinforced concrete ) hulls, reinforced with steel bars. This contrasts against more traditional materials, such as pure steel or wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are cheap and readily available, while the disadvantages are that construction labor costs are high, as are operating costs. (Ferrocement ships require thick hulls, which results in either a larger cross-sectional area that hurts hydrodynamics, or leaves less space for cargo.) During the late 19th century, there were concrete river barges 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, the largest of which was the SS Selma . United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for concrete ships-barges was Type B ship . Few concrete ships were completed in time to see wartime service during World War I, but during 1944 and 1945, concrete ships and barges were used to support U.S. and British invasions in Europe and the Pacific. Since the late 1930s, there have also been ferrocement pleasure boats .
53-505: SS Palo Alto was a concrete ship built as a tanker at the end of World War I . Completed too late to see war service, she was mothballed until 1929, when she was intentionally grounded off Seacliff State Beach in the Monterey Bay , becoming part of a pleasure pier entertainment complex. Palo Alto was damaged by the sea, leading her to be stripped and used only as a fishing pier. Subsequent decades have seen her be further broken by
106-407: A British canal boat of traditional long, narrow design, steered with a tiller; spec. one not exceeding 7 feet (approx. 2.1 metres) in width or 72 feet (approx. 21.9 metres) in length The narrowboats were initially also known as barges, and the new canals were constructed with an adjacent towpath along which draft horses walked, towing the barges. These types of canal craft are so specific that on
159-615: A January 2017 storm. The SS McKittrick , launched in 1921 in Wilmington, North Carolina , later became the SS ; Monte Carlo , a gaming 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 , 20°55′17″N 156°54′37″W / 20.921299°N 156.910139°W / 20.921299; -156.910139 ,
212-474: A barge has given rise to the saying "I wouldn't touch that [subject/thing] with a barge pole." In the United States a barge was not a sailing vessel by the end of the 19th century. Indeed, barges were often created by cutting down ( razeeing ) sailing vessels. In New York this was an accepted meaning of the term barge. The somewhat smaller scow was built as such, but the scow also had its sailing counterpart
265-576: 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. 51°44′14″N 2°27′21″W / 51.737178°N 2.455798°W / 51.737178; -2.455798 A large collection of abandoned concrete barges are seen at River Thames in Rainham, London . 51°29′55″N 0°10′55″E / 51.498608°N 0.18202°E / 51.498608; 0.18202 The wreckage of
318-607: 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 USS ; Yorktown in Charleston Harbor, 32°47′56″N 79°54′25″W / 32.798761°N 79.906863°W / 32.798761; -79.906863 , South Carolina. The wreckage of
371-613: A crucial role in World War II operations, particularly in the D-Day Normandy landings , where they were used as part of the Mulberry harbour defenses, for fuel and munitions transportation, as blockships , and as floating pontoons . In 1940, 200 were commissioned to serve as petrol-carrying barges. The barges weighed 160 tons and were constructed on the London dockside before being craned into
424-447: A dumb barge. In Europe, a Dumb barge is: An inland waterway transport freight vessel designed to be towed which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion . In America, a barge is generally pushed. Barges are used today for transporting low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods that way is very low and for larger project cargo, such as offshore wind turbine blades. Barges are also used for very heavy or bulky items;
477-548: A freezer that turns out more than a gallon of ice cream a minute. Three of the floating warehouses, designed for tropical warfare, have been built of concrete at National City, Calif., and cost $ 1,120,000 each. In the crew of the 265-ft. barges are 23 Army men. 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
530-431: A single mast with sails. Barge and lighter were used indiscriminately. A local distinction was that any flat that was not propelled by steam was a barge, although it might be a sailing flat. The term Dumb barge was probably taken into use to end the confusion. The term Dumb barge surfaced in the early nineteenth century. It first denoted the use of a barge as a mooring platform in a fixed place. As it went up and down with
583-551: A study into the feasibility of building ferrocement ships in the United States. The Fougner Concrete Shipbuilding Company, Flushing Bay , New York , reported calculated cost was of $ 290 per deadweight ton for the Cape Fear ( List of shipwrecks in 1920 "10.21 30 October") and the Sapona which they presumably built. About the same time, the California businessman W. Leslie Comyn took
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#1732856086489636-451: A typical American barge measures 195 by 35 feet (59.4 m × 10.7 m), and can carry up to about 1,500 short tons (1,400 t) of cargo. The most common European barges measure 251 by 37 feet (76.5 m × 11.4 m) and can carry up to about 2,450 tonnes (2,700 short tons). As an example, on June 26, 2006, in the US a 565-short-ton (513 t) catalytic cracking unit reactor
689-492: Is at Powell River , British Columbia , 49°51′55″N 124°33′21″W / 49.865238°N 124.555821°W / 49.865238; -124.555821 , where a lumber mill uses ten floating ferrocement ships as a breakwater, known as The Hulks . The Kiptopeke Breakwater in Chesapeake Bay , Virginia, 37°09′51″N 75°59′29″W / 37.164267°N 75.991402°W / 37.164267; -75.991402 ,
742-506: Is formed by nine sunken concrete ships built in World War II. SS San Pasqual , a former oil tanker, lies off the coast of Cayo Las Brujas , Cuba , 22°37′24″N 79°13′24″W / 22.623439°N 79.22327°W / 22.623439; -79.22327 , where it served as a hotel, then as a base for divers. Currently, the San Pasqual is abandoned. The wreckage of SS Atlantus (commissioned in 1919, sunk in 1926)
795-466: Is visible off Sunset Beach near Cape May , New Jersey , 38°56′40″N 74°58′19″W / 38.944322°N 74.972083°W / 38.944322; -74.972083 . The tanker SS Selma is located northwest of the fishing pier at Seawolf Park in Galveston , 29°20′39″N 94°47′11″W / 29.344249°N 94.786343°W / 29.344249; -94.786343 . The ship
848-537: The Urlich Finsterwalder , 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. During
901-886: 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 , 38°01′19″N 24°00′37″E / 38.022056°N 24.010368°E / 38.022056; 24.010368 ) and breakwaters (e.g., in Agios Georgios, Methana , 37°38′18″N 23°23′40″E / 37.638340°N 23.394544°E / 37.638340; 23.394544 ). Due to
954-674: The Pacific during 1944 and 1945. From the Charleroi, Pennsylvania , Mail , February 5, 1945: Largest unit of the Army's fleet is a BRL, (Barge, Refrigerated, Large) which is going to the South Pacific to serve fresh frozen foods – even ice cream – to troops weary of dry rations. The vessel can keep 64 carloads of frozen meats and 500 tons of fresh produce indefinitely at 12°F. Equipment on board includes an ice machine of five-ton daily capacity and
1007-748: The River Irwell there was reference to barges passing below Barton Aqueduct with their mast and sails standing. Early barges on the Thames were called west country barges. In the United Kingdom the word barge had many meanings by the 1890s, and these varied locally. On the Mersey a barge was called a 'Flat', on the Thames a Lighter or barge, and on the Humber a 'Keel'. A Lighter had neither mast nor rigging. A keel did have
1060-750: The SS Sapona is visible slightly south of Bimini Island in the Bahamas, 25°39′02″N 79°17′36″W / 25.65063°N 79.29337°W / 25.65063; -79.29337 . It is a popular snorkeling site and boating landmark in the area. One of the few concrete ships built for but not completed in time to be used in World War I, the SS Crete Boom , lies abandoned in the River Moy , 54°08′08″N 9°08′18″W / 54.135515°N 9.138452°W / 54.135515; -9.138452 just outside
1113-489: The narrowboat , which usually had a beam a couple of inches less to allow for clearance e.g. 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 m) . It was soon realized that the narrow locks were too limiting, and later locks were therefore doubled in width to 14 feet (4.3 m). This led to the development of the widebeam canal boat. The narrowboat (one word) definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is: Narrowboat:
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#17328560864891166-609: The 1860s, ferrocement barges were built in Europe for use on canals, and around 1896, an Italian engineer, Carlo Gabellini, began building small ships out of ferrocement. The most famous of his ships was the Liguria . Between 1908 and 1914, larger ferrocement barges began to be made in Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and United States. The remains of a British ship of this type,
1219-464: The British canal system the term 'barge' is no longer used to describe narrowboats and widebeams . Narrowboats and widebeams are still seen on canals, mostly for leisure cruising, and now engine-powered. The people who moved barges were known as lightermen . Poles are used on barges to fend off other nearby vessels or a wharf. These are often called 'pike poles'. The long pole used to maneuver or propel
1272-573: The British river system and larger waterways, the Thames sailing barge , and Dutch barge and unspecified other styles of barge, are still known as barges. The term Dutch barge is nowadays often used to refer to an accommodation ship, but originally refers to the slightly larger Dutch version of the Thames sailing barge. During the Industrial Revolution , a substantial network of canals was developed in Great Britain from 1750 onward. Whilst
1325-626: The U.S. government contracted McCloskey & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build 24 self-propelled concrete ships. Construction started in July 1943. The shipyard was at Hookers Point in Tampa, Florida , and at its peak, it employed 6,000 workers. The U.S. government also contracted with two companies in California for the construction of concrete barge ships . Barge ships were large vessels that lacked engines to propel them. Instead, they were towed by tugs. In Europe, ferrocement barges (FCBs) played
1378-399: The United Kingdom. Between the world wars, there was little commercial or military interest in concrete ship construction. The reason was that other shipbuilding methods were cheaper and less labor-intensive, and other kinds of ships were cheaper to operate. However, in 1942, after the U.S. entered World War II , the U.S. military found that its contractors had steel shortages. Consequently,
1431-474: The auxiliary coaster Violette (built 1919), can be seen at Hoo , Kent , England. On August 2, 1917, Nicolay Fougner of Norway launched the first self-propelled ferrocement ship intended for ocean travel. This was an 84-foot (26 m) vessel of 400 tons named Namsenfjord . With the success of this ship, additional ferrocement vessels were ordered, and in October 1917, the U.S. government invited Fougner to head
1484-502: The carcasses of 200 more birds and two harbor seals inside the wreck. The ship continued to deteriorate after the clean-up. While she had over the decades been broken into four roughly segmented pieces, winter storms in February 2016 pushed the wreck onto her starboard side and broke her rear half open. On 21 January 2017, another winter storm tore the stern off the ship. On 5 January 2023, yet another winter storm destroyed portions of
1537-502: The final port to the refinery. The Transportation Institute at Texas A&M found that inland barge transportation in the US produces far fewer emissions of carbon dioxide for each ton of cargo moved compared to transport by truck or rail. According to the study, transporting cargo by barge produces 43% less greenhouse gas emissions than rail and more than 800% less than trucks. Environmentalists claim that in areas where barges, tugboats and towboats idle may produce more emissions like in
1590-526: The initiative to build ferrocement ships on his own. He formed the San Francisco Ship Building Company (in Oakland, California ), and hired Alan Macdonald and Victor Poss to design the first American ferrocement ship, a 6,125-ton steamer named the SS Faith . Faith was launched March 18, 1918. She cost $ 750,000 to build. She was used to carry bulk cargo for trade until 1921, when she
1643-414: The largest of these could accommodate ocean-going vessels e.g the later Manchester Ship Canal , a complex network of smaller canals was also developed. These smaller canals had locks, bridges and tunnels that were at minimum only 7 feet (2.1 m) wide at the waterline . On wider sections, standard barges and other vessels could trade, but full access to the network necessitated the parallel development of
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1696-449: The local sailing club, whose land it was on, for fear it was a "danger to children". Local historians disagreed with the club and were displeased with their actions. In 1944 a concrete firm in California proposed a submarine shaped freighter which they claimed could achieve speeds of 75 knots. The war ended any more research into the project. In retrospect many believe the claims were greatly overstated. Concrete barges also served in
1749-578: The locks and dams of the Mississippi River. Self-propelled barges may be used for traveling downstream or upstream in placid waters; they are operated as an unpowered barge, with the assistance of a tugboat, when traveling upstream in faster waters. Canal barges are usually made for the particular canal in which they will operate. Unpowered vessels—barges—may be used for other purposes, such as large accommodation vessels , towed to where they are needed and stationed there as long as necessary. An example
1802-606: The modern meaning arose around 1480. Bark "small ship" is attested from 1420, from Old French barque , from Vulgar Latin barca (400 AD). The more precise meaning of Barque as "three-masted sailing vessel" arose in the 17th century, and often takes the French spelling for disambiguation. Both are probably derived from the Latin barica , from Greek baris "Egyptian boat", from Coptic bari "small boat", hieroglyphic Egyptian and similar ba-y-r for "basket-shaped boat". By extension,
1855-510: 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 50 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
1908-570: The pier leading to the ship. 36°58′10.75″N 121°54′50.31″W / 36.9696528°N 121.9139750°W / 36.9696528; -121.9139750 Concrete ship The oldest known ferrocement watercraft was a dinghy built by Joseph-Louis Lambot in Southern France in 1848. Lambot's boat was featured in the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1855. Beginning in
1961-739: The rest served admirably. Modern hobbyists also build ferrocement boats (ferroboats), as their construction methods do not require special tools, and the materials are comparatively cheap. Since the 1960s, the American Society of Civil Engineers has sponsored the National Concrete Canoe Competition. In Europe, especially the Netherlands, concrete is still used to build some of the barges on which houseboats are built. Surviving wartime concrete ships are no longer in use as ships. Several continue in use in various forms, mostly as museums or breakwaters. The largest collection
2014-517: The sailing scow. The innovation that led to the modern barge was the use of iron barges towed by a steam tugboat. These were first used to transport grain and other bulk products. From about 1840 to 1870 the towed iron barge was quickly introduced on the Rhine, Danube, Don, Dniester , and rivers in Egypt, India and Australia. Many of these barges were built in Great Britain. Nowadays 'barge' generally refers to
2067-725: The sea, but large sections of her wreck remain somewhat intact. SS Palo Alto was built by the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, California . She was launched on 29 May 1919, too late to see service in the war. Her sister ship was the SS Peralta . Palo Alto was mothballed in Oakland until 1929, when she was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California . A pier
2120-418: The ship, and she was stripped of her fittings and left as a fishing pier . She was a popular site for recreational fishing , but eventually she deteriorated to the point where she was unsafe for this purpose, and she was closed to the public in 1950. Following an attempt at restoration in the 1980s, she reopened for fishing for a few years, then closed again. The fishing pier opened to foot traffic once again in
2173-474: The specialized ship-hospitals, which evacuated seriously wounded and "important" soldiers to German hospitals along rivers. Several concrete ships were aground on the west beach of Iwo To (Iwo Jima) in Japan, 24°46′57″N 141°17′35″E / 24.78238°N 141.293095°E / 24.78238; 141.293095 , to make a breakwater by the US forces in 1945. Most of them were broken by typhoons but one
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2226-457: The summer of 2016, but later closed for repairs. Nicknamed the "Cement Ship", Palo Alto serves as an artificial reef for marine life . Pelicans and other seabirds perch on the wreck, sea perch and other fish feed on algae that grow in the shelter of the wreck, and sea lions and other marine mammals visit the wreck to feed on the fish. In the spring of 2005, oil found on wildlife nearly two years earlier, killing dozens of seabirds,
2279-563: The term "embark" literally means to board the kind of boat called a "barque". In Great Britain a merchant barge was originally a flat bottomed merchant vessel for use on navigable rivers. Most of these barges had sails. For traffic on the River Severn the barge was described thus: "The lesser sort are called barges and frigates, being from forty to sixty feet in length, having a single mast and square sail, and carrying from twenty to forty tons burthen." The larger vessels were called trows. On
2332-578: The tides, it made a very convenient mooring place for steam vessels. Within a few decades, the term dumb barge evolved, and came to mean: 'a vessel propelled by oars only'. By the 1890s Dumb barge was still used only on the Thames. By 1880 barges on British rivers and canals were often towed by steam tugboats. On the Thames, many dumb barges still relied on their poles, oars and the tide. Others dumb barges made use of about 50 tugboats to tow them to their destinations. While many coal barges were towed, many dumb barges that handled single parcels were not. On
2385-536: The town of Ballina , County Mayo , Ireland, and is considered of much interest to the area's many tourists. A concrete barge, the Cretetree , is beached in the harbour of the Isle of Scalpay near Tarbert , Harris, Scotland, 57°52′37″N 6°42′00″W / 57.876873°N 6.699965°W / 57.876873; -6.699965 . It was built by Aberdeen Concrete Ships , and completed in 1919. The Purton Hulks ,
2438-476: The water by a giant crane. Some barges were fitted with engines and used as mobile canteens and troop carriers. Some of these vessels survive as abandoned wrecks or sea defenses (against storm surges) in the Thames Estuary including near Rainham Marshes . ) Two remain in civil use as moorings at Westminster . One notable wartime FCB, previously beached at Canvey Island , was partially removed in 2003 by
2491-466: Was built leading to the ship in 1930, and she was sunk in a few feet in the water so that her keel rested on the bottom. There she was refitted as an amusement ship, with amenities including a dance floor, a swimming pool and a café. The company went bankrupt two years later during the Great Depression , and the ship cracked at the midsection during a winter storm. The State of California purchased
2544-611: 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 SS Palo Alto , a concrete tanker launched on May 29, 1919, was purchased and turned into an amusement pier, and is still visible at Seacliff State Beach , near Aptos , California , 36°58′11″N 121°54′50″W / 36.969704°N 121.913947°W / 36.969704; -121.913947 . It broke up during
2597-440: Was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and marine water environments. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs , but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats , or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many types of barges. "Barge" is attested from 1300, from Old French barge , from Vulgar Latin barga . The word originally could refer to any small boat;
2650-654: Was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi . Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled after delivery, but shipping an assembled unit reduces costs and avoids reliance on construction labor at the delivery site, which in the case of the reactor was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina . Of the reactor's 700-mile (1,100 km) journey, only about 40 miles (64 km) were traveled overland, from
2703-783: Was sold and scrapped as a breakwater in Cuba. On April 12, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved the Emergency Fleet Corporation program which oversaw the construction of 24 ferrocement ships for the war. However, when the war ended in November 1918, only 12 ferrocement ships were under construction and none of them had been completed. These 12 ships were eventually completed, but soon sold to private companies who used them for light-trading, storage, and scrap. Other countries that looked into ferrocement ship construction during this period included Canada, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden and
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#17328560864892756-407: Was traced back to the ship, whose fuel tanks had cracked and were leaking fuel oil . In September 2006, a clean-up project was started that cost an estimated $ 1.7 million, approximately the same as the estimated $ 1.5 million cost of the original construction of the ship in 1919. During the clean-up, workers pumped 500 U.S. gallons (416 Imperial gallons; 1,893 liters) of oil from the ship and discovered
2809-503: Was used as a pier. Japan built four concrete ships named Takechi Maru No. 1 to 4 ( 武智丸 ) during World War II. After the war, two of them turned into a breakwater in Kure, Hiroshima , 34°16′48″N 132°45′23″E / 34.280089°N 132.756295°E / 34.280089; 132.756295 . Barge Barge typically refers to a flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use
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