World War II in the Pacific |
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"The Service Force Pacific Fleet had been created under Vice Admiral William Calhoun, who had assembled an armada of transports, repair and supply vessels, and a collection of 300-foot concrete oil barges. He had established a floating navel base at Funafuti Lagoon in the Ellice Islands. Everything that the Fifth Fleet would need to sustain its 200 ships and 20,000 men, ..."
I remember seeing a concrete ship off the southern coast of New Jersey
as a kid. A wreck, an erosion barrier?
Now, the WW2 Pacific ships.
Sure enough, the Web does have a reference to the concrete oil barges:
Concrete Ship Constructors of National City with And also The
History about the Ferro-Concrete Ships
in Europe dating back to experiments with a rowboat in 1856.
Photos?
There is a List
of 100 Ferro-Concrete Ship Builders
including 17 in the USA. Most built yard-ships in the late WWI period,
but a couple were 400 foot tankers.
The following are of WW2 era.
A quick search of the internet found a site dated the same day of the
very concrete ship I remembered with her history and a photo. She dates
to the first war and is now broken; she was perfectly upright back when I saw her.
Photo is of GSK Quartz (later IX-150) taken by Vincent Cottrell, most likely in
Leyte 1944-45.
Post War : Powell River (B.C.) Hulks
and Corundum (IX-164)
Return to: WW2 Menu
About this page: concship - Special Ships of World War II: concrete
and others as they occur.
Last updated on June 28, 2005 add I-was-there , IX-164.
5July'07 update url for pictures.
Contact us at
URL: http://www.ww2pacific.com/concship.html