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© Stephen S. Roberts, 2024

The EFC Concrete Ship Program

In April 1917 the Bureau of Standards began an investigation for the EFC of the use of concrete for building ships, and on 27 December 1917 the Shipping Board established a Department of Concrete Ship Construction within the EFC which absorbed the Bureau of Standards organization and its personnel. Rudolph J. Wig was put in charge of the department which by the end of January 1918 comprised 34 men.

The EFC concrete ship program had already begun with the award on 17 December 1917 of Contract 147 to Liberty Shipbuilding Co., Brunswick, Georgia. It called for one concrete cargo ship hull without engines, EFC hull 997, of about 3,000 deadweight tons (dwt) to the company’s own plans and specifications which the EFC designated Design 1040, to be followed by 49 more ships under later contracts if it proved successful. The plans were to be prepared by Monks & Johnson of Boston and by George Owen and approved by the EFC, although the EFC would take no responsibility for them. The EFC was to provide the engine and boilers and the contractor was to install them. The ship was initially named BROKENBOW on 15 May 1918 but was renamed ATLANTUS before launching. This was soon followed by the award on 28 January 1918 of Contract 185 to Fougner American Steel Concrete Shipbuilding Co., Flushing Bay, N.Y., for a concrete cargo ship with engines, EFC hull 1189, of about 3,500 dwt to Fougner’s design which the EFC designated Design 1048. This ship, which was named POLIAS, was to be followed by another five ships if she proved successful.

Wig reported on 30 January that contracts had also been prepared by his department and were then under negotiation with the Ferro Concrete Construction Co. of New York for one ship, to be followed by nine more contingent on the seaworthiness and satisfactory character of the first one, and with the San Francisco Shipbuilding Co. of San Francisco for one 7,500-ton ship. On 8 February 1918 Contract 186 was awarded to the Ferro Concrete firm for a 3,500-ton cargo ship designated EFC hull 1190 to be built at a new yard at Redondo Beach, California. No contract was immediately concluded with the San Francisco firm, which was then building the 5,000-ton concrete FAITH on its own account. The Ferro Concrete contract was voided on 16 April 1918 when the firm failed to meet the required progress deadlines at its Redondo Beach Shipyard and no design number or name was assigned.

Pressure from Congress, the concrete industry, and on one occasion the White House to increase the concrete ship program increased in March 1918. The USSB leadership (Hurley, Piez, and Schwab) believed that a 3,500 ton cargo ship was uneconomical to operate and the three men recommended that design efforts concentrate on ships of larger capacity. Having already designed a 3,500 ton vessel, Wig’s engineers now accelerated their work on plans for a 7,500 ton ship. On 9 April 1918 Hurley submitted to the Treasury an estimate of appropriation for an emergency fund for building concrete ships, and on 12 April 1918 it was approved by President Wilson for submission to Congress. It provided $50 million for the establishment of five “agency yards” to build concrete ships. These yards, each with four shipways, would remain the property of the government, and the contractor was to act as an “agent” of the government and supervise the construction of both plant and ships. On 18 April 1918 the EFC awarded Contract 229 to the Liberty SB Co. for the first of these yards, to be located at Wilmington, North Carolina, and the construction there of “eight concrete steam cargo vessels complete of 3500 to 7500 dwt as the [EFC] may hereafter determine upon, on [the EFC’s] plans and specifications hereto attached.” These were to include two 3,500-ton concrete ships for which the moulds were already prepared and six 7,500-ton ships to be built once Wig’s naval architects had completed their plans. These were EFC hulls 1560-1567. At the same time Contract 147 for ATLANTUS was cancelled, its provisions probably being integrated into the new contract. The EFC had developed designs for 3,500 ton cargo ships and 7,500 ton "merchant ships" (designs 1070 and 1071), and Liberty began two 3,500 dwt cargo ships to design 1070 at Wilmington. These ships became CAPE FEAR (ex ROCKPORT 11 June 1919, EFC hull 1560) and SAPONA (ex OLD NORTH STATE 25 November 1919, ex CORINE 8 Oct 1919, EFC hull 1562). The 7,500-ton Design 1071, probably a cargo ship, may have been for the contract being negotiated in January-February 1918 with the San Francisco Shipbuilding Co.

Piez intended to establish four other “agency yards” as soon as Congress provided additional funds. However in May the EFC request for a special supplemental appropriation of $50 million for the acquisition of concrete ships died in the House. Hurley, Piez and Schwab then decided to devote to concrete vessels about $40 million of the funds Congress had previously appropriated for wartime merchant shipbuilding, and this was used to place the four additional “agency contracts.” In late May and early June 1918 the EFC awarded four more contracts for Design 1100 concrete tankers, each for eight ships. Contract 298 went to the San Francisco Shipbuilding Co., San Francisco, California, on 21 May 1918 for EFC hulls 1662-1669 and was followed on 3 June 1918 by Contract 305 to the A. Bentley & Sons Co., Jacksonville, Florida, for EFC hulls 1707-1714; Fred T. Ley & Co., Mobile, Alabama, for EFC hulls 1715-1722; and the Pacific Marine & Construction Co. of California, San Diego, California, (a firm established for the purpose by the Scofield Engineering Construction Company) for EFC hulls 1723-1730. This brought the program to 42 hulls on order. Each contract provided for the establishment of a four-way yard on an agency basis and the construction of eight ships to a 7,500 ton design developed by Wig’s naval architects. The three Agency contracts of 3 June 1918 and probably the earlier San Francisco one were for eight 7,500-ton concrete cargo ships, but soon after this language was changed to read tankers, the need for them now being greater. According to W. L. Scott of Lloyd’s Register who was monitoring concrete shipbuilding in the U.S., by June 1918 the concrete ship program provided for one 3,000-ton cargo vessel (ATLANTUS), three 3,500-ton cargo vessels (POLIAS, CAPE FEAR, and SAPONA), thirty-three 7,500-ton oil tankers, and five 7,500-ton cargo vessels. Later reclassifications and cancellations suggest that the tankers came ahead of the cargo ships at each yard, although this is not confirmed.

Cutbacks began shortly before the formal end of the war. Only two of the four slipways in each yard were proceeded with. At Liberty’s Wilmington yard the EFC on 29 October 1918 directed stopping work on building way #1 and followed on 6 November 1918 by stopping work on building way #4. On 25 November 1918 the EFC suspended hulls 1561 and 1563-67 there, and on 17 January 1919 it cancelled all of these. Similar cutbacks led to the suspension on 25 November 1918 and the cancellation on 13 January 1919 of all but two hulls at Bentley and Pacific Marine and all but three hulls at San Francisco and Ley. Hulls 1664 at San Francisco and hull 1717 at Ley survived these cuts because some material had already been procured for them, and instead they were redesignated as Design 1101 cargo ships (Hull 1717 in December 1918). By December 1918 the post-armistice program included only 14 concrete ships of 5 different types: one 3,000-ton cargo vessel, three 3,500 ton cargo vessels of two types, two 7,500-ton cargo vessels, and eight 7,500 ton oil tankers. The two tankers then building at San Francisco were practically ready for concreting at the end of December 1918 with the first scheduled to launch on 10 March 1919. The yard was given permission to build the third vessel of their contract, a 7,500-ton cargo vessel, on the longitudinal system of framing as they had done in their FAITH. The 14 surviving Design 1100 and 1101 ships were named circa early 1919 and three were later renamed. (The ships cancelled in January 1919 were unnamed.) The last reduction in the program occurred on 15 October 1919 when the two Design 1101 ships, EFC 1664 (now named WALLEMAR) and EFC 1717 (WHATLEY) were cancelled, the latter at Mobile being part of the auction sale of that yard in 1922. This left the total output of the program at four Design 1040, 1048, and 1070 cargo ships of 3,000-3,500 dwt and eight Design 1100 tankers of 7,500 dwt.

Designs and Ships

EFC DESIGN 1040: 3,000 DWT CONCRETE FREIGHTER (ATLANTUS). Dimensions 260.2’ oa, 249.3’ pp x 43.5’ max x 22.5’ depth. Triple expansion engines, 1,400 ihp. Built by LIBERTY SHIPBUILDING CO., Brunswick, Ga. under contract No. 147 of 17 December 1917 for EFC Hull 997. Total output: 1 ship.

ATLANTUS, ex BROKENBOW before Dec 1918. EFC Hull 997. K: 20 Apr 1918. L: 4 Dec 1918. C: 11 Nov 1919. O/N 218120. Documented 24 Jan 1920. Operated in the New England coal trade until laid up at Norfolk and documentation surrendered on 25 Oct 1920. Sold in 1925 by the USSB for stationary service to H. P. Etheridge, Inc., and dismantled at Baltimore. Hulk arrived at Cape May, New Jersey on 8 Jun 1926 for use as a ferry pier but was driven aground by storms on 10 and 13 Jul 1926 and abandoned. Remnants still visible.


EFC DESIGN 1048: 3,500 DWT CONCRETE FREIGHTER (POLIAS). Dimensions 281.8’ oa, 267.3’ pp x 46.0’ max x 23.4’ depth. Triple expansion engines, 1,400 ihp. Built by FOUGNER AMERICAN STEEL CONCRETE SHIPBUILDING CO., Flushing Bay, N.Y. under contract No. 185 of 28 January 1918 for EFC Hull 1189. Total output: 1 ship.

POLIAS. EFC Hull 1189. K: 16 Aug 1918. L: 22 May 1919. C: 23 Oct 1919. O/N 218982. Documented 5 Dec 1919. Made four voyages in the New England coal trade. Ran aground in a blizzard 6 February 1920 on Old Cilley Ledge off Port Clyde, Maine, and a few years later slid into deeper water. Wreck sold on 4 December 1923 by the USSB to R. O. Elliott.


NO EFC DESIGN: 3,500 DWT CONCRETE FREIGHTER. Contract 186 for EFC hull 1190 was awarded on 8 February 1918 to FERRO CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION CO., N.Y., (sometimes listed as at Alexandria, Va.) for one 3,500 dwt freighter, but it was voided on 16 April 1918 when the firm failed to meet the required progress deadlines at its Redondo Beach Shipyard and no design number was assigned.


EFC DESIGN 1070: 3,500 DWT CONCRETE FREIGHTER (CAPE FEAR and SAPONA). Dimensions 281.8’ oa, 266.6’ pp x 46.0’ max x 24.8’ depth. Triple expansion engines, 1,400 ihp. Built by LIBERTY SHIPBUILDING CO., Wilmington, N.C. under contract No. 229 of 18 April 1918 for EFC Hulls 1560-1567, described as “eight concrete steam cargo vessels complete of 3,500 to 7,500 dwt as the [EFC] may hereafter determine upon.” EFC Hulls 1560 and 1562 were begun to the 3,500 dwt Design 1070, the other six were eventually to be of the new 7,500 dwt Design 1100 (see below) but were cancelled on 13 January 1919. Total output: 2 ships.

CAPE FEAR, ex ROCKPORT 11 June 1919. EFC Hull 1560. K: 19 Oct 1918. L: 31 Jul 1919. C: 19 Nov 1919. O/N 218722. Documented 6 Dec 1919. Carried railroad ties from Jacksonville to New York, coal from Norfolk to the Canal Zone, nitrate from Iquique, Chile to Martinique, and mahogany logs from Panama to New York. Sunk in collision 29 October 1920 with SS City of Atlanta in Narragansett Bay when enroute from Providence R.I. to Norfolk in ballast.

SAPONA, ex OLD NORTH STATE 25 November 1919 by the EFC to free the state nickname for a large steel passenger ship, ex CORINE 8 October 1919 at the request of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. EFC Hull 1562. K: 9 Nov 1918. L: 11 Oct 1919. C: 13 Jan 1920. O/N 219402. Documented 8 Jan 1920. Operated primarily in the New England coal trade until laid up in September 1920 at Claremont, Virginia. Sold in 1923 by the USSB to Carl G. Fisher to be grounded as a clubhouse at Miami and arrived there on 13 November 1923. Dismantled by September 1924 and resold in 1925 and 1926. Towed to the Bahamas 28-30 August 1926 and grounded as a warehouse for rum runners. Abandoned circa 1933, remnants visible.


EFC DESIGN 1100: 7,500 DWT CONCRETE TANKER (SELMA, etc.). Dimensions 434.25’ oa, 420.0’ pp x 54.0’ max x 35.0’ depth, Triple expansion engines, 2,800 ihp. (2,650 ihp in SELMA & LATHAM). Contracts are listed under individual yards. Total output: 8 ships, 30 cancelled.

LIBERTY SHIPBUILDING CO., WILMINGTON, N.C.
Contract No. 229 of 18 April 1918 for 6 ships, EFC hulls 1561 and 1563-1567. All were cancelled on 13 January 1919. See also Design 1070. No ships.

SAN FRANCISCO SHIPBUILDING CO., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
Contract No. 298 of 21 May 1918 for 8 ships, EFC hulls 1662-1669, of which Hulls 1665-1669 were cancelled on 13 January 1919 and Hull 1664, changed from Design 1100 to Design 1001 in December 1918 and later named WALLEMAR, was cancelled on 15 October 1919. 2 ships.

PERALTA, ex TWILIGHT 17 June 1919. EFC Hull 1662. K: 15 Oct 1918. L: 26 Oct 1920. C: 21 Feb 1921. O/N 221030. No known commercial service. Sold in 1924 by the USSB for stationary service to Peralta Portland Cement Co. for $15,000, dismantled in 1925 and fitted as a fish reduction plant. In 1958 joined with nine World War II concrete ships to form a floating breakwater protecting a log storage pond at a pulp processing plant on the Powell River, British Columbia. Still afloat there.

PALO ALTO. EFC Hull 1663. K: 15 Oct 1918. L: 29 May 1919. C: Sep 1920. O/N 220566. The only known voyages under her own power were a trial trip on 10 September 1920 and a movement within San Francisco Bay in January 1921 to attract buyers. Sold in 1924 by the USSB for stationary service to Oliver J. Olson & Co. for $18,750, then resold for dismantling. Documents surrendered 30 June 1926. Towed out 21 January 1930 for Aptos, Monterey Bay, California and grounded there as a pier for an amusement park. Still there, now badly broken up.

A. BENTLEY & SONS CO., JACKSONVILLE, FLA.
Contract No. 305 of 3 June 1918 for 8 ships, EFC Hulls 1707-1714, of which Hulls 1709-1714 were cancelled on 13 January 1919. 2 ships.

DINSMORE. EFC Hull 1707. K: 13 Nov 1918. L: 30 Jun 1920. C: Feb 1921. O/N 220820. Documented Mar 1921. Left Jacksonville on 7 March 1921, arrived at Mobile, Alabama on 13 March 1921, and probably laid up without making any commercial voyages. Sold in 1931/32 by the USSB in damaged condition for $1,500 to Coastal Petroleum Corp. Documents surrendered at Mobile 11 February 1932. Dismantled 1934, hulk resold 1935 to J.B. Barnes as scrap with the intention of using her as a breakwater in Texas. Location if any unknown.

MOFFITT. EFC Hull 1708. K: 13 Nov 1918. L: 28 Sep 1920. C: 12 Apr 1921. O/N 220919. Documented 13 Apr 1921. Left Jacksonville for Mobile, Alabama 15 April 1921 for dry-docking and probably laid up without making any commercial voyages. Transferred in 1924 by the USSB via the War Department to the Federal Barge Line, Warrior Division, to be used for oil storage at Mobile. Documents surrendered on 10 December 1924 at New Orleans, dismantled 1925. Towed circa September 1932 to Álvaro Obregón (ex Guadalupe de la Frontera, now Frontera), Mexico to be sunk at the mouth of the Grijalva River as a breakwater. Location uncertain.

FRED T. LEY & CO., MOBILE, ALA.
Contract No. 306 of 3 June 1918 for 8 ships, EFC Hulls 1715-1722, of which Hulls 1718-1722 were cancelled on 13 January 1919 and Hull 1717, changed from Design 1100 to Design 1001 in December 1918 and later named WHATLEY, was cancelled on 15 October 1919. 2 ships.

LATHAM. EFC Hull 1715. K: 6 Nov 1918. L: 9 Aug 1919. C: May 1920. O/N 219772. Documented May 1920. Carried one cargo of crude oil from Tampico to Philadelphia. Returning to Tampico on 8 July 1920 she grounded on the breakwater at the harbor entrance just a few hundred feet from where Selma had grounded in May 1920. Repaired at Tampico and at Galveston and then laid up at Mobile. Transferred in 1924 by the USSB via the War Department to the Federal Barge Line, Warrior River Division, and used as a hulk for oil storage at New Orleans. Towed circa July 1932 to Álvaro Obregón (now Frontera), Mexico to be sunk at the mouth of the Grijalva River as a breakwater. Location uncertain.

SELMA. EFC Hull 1716. K: 6 Nov 1918. L: 28 Jun 1919. C: May 1920. O/N 219771. Documented 6 May 1920. Left Mobile on 8 May 1920 to pick up a cargo of crude oil and destined for Philadelphia but upon arriving at Tampico on 17 May 1920 grounded on the rocks of the jetty and breakwater at the harbor entrance. Towed to Galveston with severe damage, not repaired. Unsuccessfully offered for sale by the USSB at Galveston on 14 October 1920, sank at a wharf in mid-1921. Refloated on 9 March 1922, taken to a purpose-dredged trough on Pelican Island, and scuttled there to clear the port. Wreck sold by USSB 1922 to J. E. Peterson & J. L. Bludworth. The deteriorating hulk was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

PACIFIC MARINE & CONSTRUCTION CO. OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO, CAL.
Contract No. 307 of 3 June 1918 for 8 ships, EFC Hulls 1723-1730, of which Hulls 1725-1730 were cancelled on 13 January 1919. 2 ships.

CUYAMACA, ex SANTA MONICA 1919. EFC Hull 1723. K: 27 Nov 1918. L: 12 Jun 1920. C: Sep 1920. O/N 220202. Documented 15 September 1920. Operated in the Tampico, Mexico, oil trade carrying crude oil from Tampico to U.S. Gulf ports until arriving at Mobile, Alabama on 15 March 1921 to be laid up. Transferred in 1924 by the USSB via the War Department to the Federal Barge Line, Warrior River Division to be used as an oil storage hulk at New Orleans and dismantled by the autumn of 1924. Towed circa August 1932 to Alvaro Obregon (now Frontera), Mexico, to be sunk at the mouth of the Grijalva River as a breakwater. Location uncertain.

SAN PASQUAL, ex MONROVIA 1919. EFC Hull 1724. K: 4 Dec 1918. L: 28 Jun 1920. C: Oct 1920. O/N 220201. Documented 18 October 1920. Operated in the Tampico, Mexico, oil trade carrying crude oil from Tampico to U.S. Gulf ports until laid up at Mobile after being damaged by a grounding and a squall in February-March 1921. Sold by USSB for stationary service to Old Time Molasses Co, in early 1923 to be used as a barge for the storage of molasses at Santiago de Cuba and dismantled. In collision in Mississippi River 14 Feb 1923 while under tow to Cuba. Transferred to Cuban registry in 1924. Bought in 1933 by a Cuban sugar company and grounded off Cayo Francés, Cuba. Armed during World War II with six heavy machine guns and two artillery pieces as a US Coast Guard patrol craft base and still exists today.


EFC DESIGN 1101: 7,500 DWT CONCRETE FREIGHTER. Characteristics generally as Design 1100 but carried freight instead of oil. All Design 1100 hulls were originally to be Design 1101 cargo ships but all but five (possibly the last one at each yard) were changed to tankers in June 1918. EFC Hulls 1664 and 1717 were changed back from Design 1100 to Design 1101 in December 1918 and later named WALLEMAR and WHATLEY, but they were cancelled on 15 October 1919. No ships built.

Selected Sources

U.S. National Archives, Records of the United States Shipping Board (Record Group 32), especially the records of the Ship Construction Division (32.4.2) and the Contract Division (32.4.7). The names and naming of ships are covered in the Ship Construction Division’s Old General file 427-1 and its Decimal General File 316.51.

Annual Report of the United States Shipping Board, 1918-1932

Merchant Vessels of the United States, 1918-1933

Lewis, Richard, with Erlend Bonderud, “The Crete Fleet” (thecretefleet.com/blog) website. The key blog categories on the right side of its home page are “Myth Buster” and “US - World War 1.” There are blogs on all 12 individual ships, which can also be located by Google. This well researched site contains far more information on the careers (and the myths) of the ships than is presented here.

Eberhardt, Robert, “Concrete Shipbuilding in San Diego, 1918-1920,” The Journal of San Diego History, Spring 1995, Vol. 41, no. 2

Fougner, Nicolay Knudtzon, Seagoing and other Concrete Ships, London, 1922.

“Government Designs and Builds 3500-Ton Concrete Ships,” Engineering News-Record, 4 July 1918.

Haviland, Jean, “American Concrete Steamers of the First and Second World Wars,” The American Neptune, Vol. XXII, No. 3 (July 1962), pages 157-183.

Scott, W. L., “Concrete Shipbuilding in the United States of America,” Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, London, 1919, pages 215-218.

Webster, F. B., et. al., ed. Shipbuilding Cyclopedia, New York, 1920.

Wig, R. J., “Present Status of the Concrete Ship,” Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, New York, 1918, pp 185-195 and plate 112.

Wig, R. J., “Method of Construction of Concrete Ships,” American Concrete Institute, Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Convention Held at Atlantic City, N. J., 27-28 June 1919, Published by the Institute, 1919, pages 241ff.

Williams, William J., “The American Concrete Shipbuilding Program of World War I,” The American Neptune, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Winter 1992), pages 5-15.