May 31, 1920

The largest of 12 experimental concrete ships built for the U.S. Navy during World War I struck a jetty at Tampico, Mexico, on May 31, 1920, causing a 60-foot crack in the hull of the tanker less than a year after it was launched from Mobile. The S.S. Selma, named after the government seat of Dallas County, was built with more than 2,600 cubic yards of expanded shale concrete in an effort to conserve steel during wartime. Unfortunately, there were no facilities that could repair such large concrete hulls, so the Selma was scrapped after all useable equipment was removed. The Selma was then towed near Pelican Island, Texas, and sunk in a channel dug specifically for the occasion. The hull, on the National Register of Historic Places, is still visible from the shore. The durability of the ship has been shown in the face of  frequent storms along the Texas coast but concrete technology for shipbuilding has never advanced.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Aerial photograph of the S.S. Selma wreckage, 2013. (John Wiley, Wikipedia)

Plans for a concrete motorboat by Walter Dowsey, 1917. (Photography by Walter Dowsey and family, Wikipedia)

The wreck of the concrete ship S.S. Selma sit in Galvaston Bay off the Texas coast. The experimental ship was built by the F.F. Ley and Company in Mobile, Mobile County in 1919. It was intentionally sunk in 1922 after suffering irreparable damage to its hull. The ruins are often visible in the bay and are a popular attraction. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of Chuck Wilkson)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.