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We invite you to our Concrete Ship Blog - it's an ever expanding encyclopedia !
Index
Index / Page Links
There's a lot of information on this website, and so this Index aims to get you to where you want to get to as quickly and simply as possible ! It is in the footer and here...Or spend some time exploring the 'World of Concrete Ships'. The most detail is to be found in our Blogs...
About Us
Just so you know a bit about the authors and why we are interested in the subject of Concrete Ships, we have an About Us section. We also provide links in the About Us section to articles published by the authors
British World War I Era Concrete Ships
For me, this is where it all started, with 'Cretegaff', the last surviving floating example of a World War I British built concrete ship. For Erlend, it was 'Hans Martin' at Porsgrund, Norway, the oldest surviving floating concrete ship in the World. The section covers 'Cretegaff', 'Creteboom', 'Cretehawser', 'Cretetree', 'Cretefield & The Warrenpoint Barges'', 'The Wrecks', 'A.C.W. 10 & A.C.W. 11' & 'Violette & Molliette', complete with a photo gallery
British World War II Ferro-Concrete Barges
495 Ferro-Concrete Barges (mainly of 84 feet long) were built during World War II to assist the war effort. 294 were to carry cargo in an open barge and 201 'Petrol Barges' were built with a view to carrying fuel to support the D-Day landings. many, many survive today.
Sadly, much that is written about them is no more than Urban Myth, particularly the 16 on the Thames at Rainham Marshes. We aim to fix that, replace fiction with fact and bust a few myths along the way !
World War I U.S. Concrete Ships
We firstly researched, in great depth, the U.S.S.B. 'Concrete Ship Building' programme for the 'Emergency Fleet' and chronicled the Life & Times of the 12 concrete Emergency Fleet ships that were completed and launched in the U.S. between 1918 and 1920. You can visit the write up for each of the 12 ships from the button below. We went much further than just the USSB EFC ships - we covered the concrete oil barges, tankers, riverboats, Navy barges, car floats & water tankers. You'll find those in our Blog series.
World War II U.S. Concrete Ships
World War II saw a return to the same conditions that had motivated concrete shipbuilding in World War I - growing demand for ships, loss of ships due to the German U-boat campaign and scarcity of steel. The Maritime Commission contracted for quite a number of large, ocean going ships and barges, including 24 self-propelled concrete Dry Cargo Steamers that were built by McCloskey at Hooker's Point, Tampa, Florida. You'll find an overview on the page, and the full detail in a series of Blogs
Blogs
To keep the sections of our website 'manageable', most of our new content is now presented in a categorised Blog format. Over time, we have expanded from our start point of concrete ships to cover other interesting topics such as Mulberry Harbours and even steel ships that were built to deliver fuel to support the Normandy invasion.
Over time, our Blogs aim to cover the entire world of concrete ships and Mulberry harbour components ever built, anywhere, always with the same theme of Why ? Where ? How ? When ? What ? and Where are they now ?
WWI U.S. Concrete Riverboats
This is a new section that we are only just beginning to build out. Right now we have focused on the last surviving 150 foot Riverboat, 'Colonel Frederick G Hodgson' now known as 'The Boat'
WWI Photo Gallery
Lots of lovely photos of World War I concrete ships !
WWII Photo Gallery
Lots of lovely photos of World War II concrete ships !
Concrete Ship Videos
A collection of videos that show concrete ships, including Vintage newsreels and modern day 'explorers' videos. We limit the videos displayed to one that do not spread Urban Myths with is what happens when they go to Wikipedia for their history !
Connect with Us
There are lots of ways that you can keep in touch with our research and the things we publish. You can subscribe to this website or just follow us on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter
World War I Ferro-Concrete Ships of the USA
Born in the USA
Whilst the U.S.A. did not enter World War I until April 1917, U.S. merchant ships were being sunk by German U-Boats well before then as they crossed the Atlantic with supplies.
By the end of the War, around 5,000 Allied merchant ships and around 15,000,000 tons of merchant shipping had been sunk by the Germans. The Allies need to build more ships, but there was a scarcity of steel. On 7th September 1916, The United States Shipping Board was created and its job was to manage merchant shipping in the U.S. and find ways to build more ships. They found concrete..
The U.S.S.B. looked to Europe, and in particular to Norwegian Nicolay Fougner, who had built 'Namsenfjord', the World's first seagoing concrete ship.
The outcome, a programme to build 43 concrete ships, cargo ships and tankers, of a scale previously never attempted. 12 were completed.
We have covered the Life & Times of all 12 WWI era U.S. Concrete Ships of the Emergency Fleet l, with background detail and in-depth Blogs about each ship.
Progressively, we are also Blogging about the many other concrete vessels built in the U.S.A. in the World War I era
Ten Floating Concrete Centenarians
Blog Series : Ten Floating Concrete Centenarians
Amazingly, there are surviving concrete World War I era ships around the World that are still afloat, more than a 100 years after they were launched. Not only that, many are in full use today !
They are the survivors. And they are dotted around the World..
To find out about their rich and interesting lives, read our Blog series :-
'Ten Floating Concrete Centenarians'
Ten World War I Concrete Ship Wrecks
Blog Series : Ten World War I Concrete Ship Wrecks
We identified that over 600 concrete vessels were built during the World War I era.
Most are long gone and forgotten, but some remain as wrecks, to remind us of anera over a century ago when ocean going ships were built of concrete !
This Blog series is our memorial to those concrete ships that, for now at least, are still with us to remind us of human ingenuity in the face of adversity
