Kevin Woyce
Author & Photographer
In 1918, the United States had just entered "The Great War," and needed a lot of ships, quickly. To save
money and materials, the Navy ordered 43 'concrete ships'--actually steel frames covered with concrete--from five shipyards.
Only a dozen were built before the war ended. Uncle Sam cancelled the project, and within a few years, the Navy decomissioned and
scrapped the entire concrete fleet. If not for the Atlantus, only a handful of naval scholars would remember that these ships had
ever existed.
In 1926, the National Navigation Company of Baltimore bought the 250-foot Atlantus, by now stripped
to her steel frame and concrete shell, and towed her from Norfolk to Cape May Point. She was supposed to be the first of three concrete
ships sent to the bottom just off the point to form the foundation for a ferry dock.
But in June of 1926,
before the ship's new owners could sink her, a storm broke her mooring ropes. Atlantus drifted into shallow water and stuck fast in
the sand. Unable to move the wreck, National Navigation shelved the ferry plan and declared bankruptcy. Part of the ship is still
visible above the waves off Sunset Beach--not far from the modern Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal.
Book Excerpt:
Jersey Shore Facts & Photos
From Chapter 2: Wrecked! -- the story of Cape May's 'concrete ship.'
Excerpt from Jersey Shore Facts & Photos
copyright 2007 by Kevin Woyce
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Jersey Shore Facts & Photos - $9.95
Jersey Shore
Facts & Photos
