Waves Tear Off Stern From SS Palo Alto, aka, 'The Concrete Ship,' in Santa Cruz County

NBC Bay Area ^ | 1/23

[nickcarraway]

[Hot Tabasco]

Looks like a poop covered gull magnet......

[Jim W N]

“Abandon ship!”

I grew up going to generally cold Rio Del Mar beach in Aptos, Calif. and wondered about that ship out there. Didn’t know it was called the SS Palo Alto - I grew up in Palo Alto.

[KC_Lion]

Wow, back in 2001 when I was 12 we visited Santa Cruz and seeing the "Cement Boat" was a big deal.

Just how did they expect that work?

[Pearls Before Swine]

Many years ago, when the first Whole Earth Catalog came out, there was an article about ferroconcrete ship hulls. I read a bit more, and soon found that experiments had been done to find the optimum ratio of steel to concrete for hull strength. It was 100% steel, zero concrete...

[Red Badger]

We have one here.
It was turned into a floating marine supplies store..............

[Red Badger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_ship

[pepsi_junkie]

I read a bit more, and soon found that experiments had been done to find the optimum ratio of steel to concrete for hull strength. It was 100% steel, zero concrete...

Sort of like asking "what handles bending better, candy canes or caramel?"

[Oratam]

Sort of like Bart Simpson’s secret to the best PB&J sandwich: no PB; all J.

[Obadiah]

The front fell off!

[Red Badger]

Here’s the story of ours:

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20160203/long-strange-history-of-boat

[PLMerite]

So this thing hasn’t actually moved or even floated for over 70 years.

[bgill]

Jeannie was right not wanting Tony to get on a cement ship.

[Vinnie]

There’s the remains of a concrete ship just south of Bimini, Bahamas.
USS Sapona. Understand it was used in rum running days.
Snorkeled through it. Fascinating.
Can see parts of the engine and other debris. Schools of Yellow-tail snapper.
Oh, and barracuda as long as you.!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sapona

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Pearls Before Swine :" Many years ago, when the first Whole Earth Catalog came out, there was an article about ferroconcrete ship hulls.."

Right !
The ferroconcrete was recommended for covering Buckey Fuller's Geodesic domes, on the outter shell.
I still have the Whole Earth Catalogue, vol 1, number 1.
I even made a geodesic dome skeleton out of tongue depressors about 12 -14 inches high, and it was able to support my weight (then) of 185 pounds.
I was looking into the dome as for low-income housing; but found that without curved furniture, there was too much wasted space; ideal for air circulation (wood stove), though !

[rockrr]

Cool pics. Here's one that I found...

[taxcontrol]

Ferro cement boats have worked very well for their intended design, cheap and fast to build, they helped carry a lot of supplies for our military. Started in WW1 and continued in WW2. The fact that they are still around show just how durable they can be.

Now, if we were to use more modern tech, say fiber glass rods instead of steel, flexible mesh over the rods, fiber reinforced flexible concrete, coated with Grancrete or epoxy and then painted, you would a very sturdy ship that was a lot less expensive than a steel one. And while I have not run the math, with light weight concrete, you could be lighter than steel.

Might even be possible to build a boat with AAC.

[lardog]

Used to fish off that thing back in the day.

[dainbramaged]

In 1971 I worked for a boat yard in Tacoma, Washington where we built a 45 foot fishing vessel from ferro-cement that my father had designed.
The framing was 1" steel tubing with several layers of 1/2" wire mesh wired to the tubing and hog-ringed about every inch to pull the mesh together. Talk about sore hands after a week of squeezing hog rings - then the plastering with cement by a special team brought in from British Columbia. It was a 5 gallon bucket brigade of wet cement (no aggregate) for several hours, and not much fun.
The customer was from Cordova, Alaska and was thrilled at the finished product - don't know if she's still in service.

[JamesP81]

I’ve come to believe that calling a ship unsinkable or indestructible, etc, is tantamount to daring God to prove you wrong.

He has a tendency to take up the offer.