Concrete Ship - Today

Today

Surviving concrete ships are no longer in use as ships. Several live on in various forms, mostly as museums or breakwaters. For example, SS San Pasqual, a former oil tanker, lies off the coast of Cayo Las Brujas, Cuba, 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), is visible off Cape May, New Jersey. The tanker SS Selma,29°20′40″N 94°47′10″W / 29.34444°N 94.78611°W / 29.34444; -94.78611 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. One of the few ships used in World War I, the SS Creteboom, lies abandoned in the River Moy, just outside the town of Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland and is considered of much interest to the area's many tourists. The largest collection, though, is doubtless at Powell River, British Columbia, where a lumber mill uses ten ferrocement ships as a breakwater. The SS Palo Alto, a concrete tanker that was launched May 29, 1919, was purchased and turned into an amusement pier, and is still visible at Seacliff State Beach, near Aptos, California. The SS McKittrick, launched in 1921 in Wilmington, N.C. 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 believed to be a WW II concrete ship or barge, although it has been misidentified as a Liberty Ship.

The remains of the Col. J. E. Sawyer can be seen near the USS Yorktown in Charleston Harbor, SC.

Modern hobbyists also build ferrocement boats (ferroboats). The reason is that construction methods do not require special tools, and materials are comparatively cheap. A pioneer in this movement is Hartley Boats, which has been selling plans for concrete boats since 1938. Meanwhile, 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.

The 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.