Greeting family, friends, and neighbors. There's a popular artificial reef at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California for viewing marine life and seabirds with a surprising history. Today's Historical Snippet is about the S.S. Palo Alto, the Cement Ship.......Bill
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Historic Snippets
THE CEMENT SHIP
A ship made of concrete sounds like a really bad idea! But that’s exactly what the U.S. Government had in mind in 1918 when, due to the shortage of conventional materials, twenty four ferrocement oil tankers were commissioned by President Woodrow Wilson to replace ships destroyed by German submarines. The War ended later that year and only two ships neared completion, the 435 foot long 7500 ton S.S. Palo Alto, and sister ship Peralta, built at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland. Using tested technology developed by Nicolay Fougner, materials from the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, and rubble salvaged from the San Francisco Earthquake, the brand new S.S. Palo Alto, no longer a military priority, was “mothballed”.
In 1929, keenly aware of the throngs of tourists drawn to the natural beauty and temperate climate of Santa Cruz from California’s large cities and hot inland valleys, the Seacliff Amusement Corporation purchased the S.S. Palo Alto in 1929 with the intention of creating “a most unique amusement enterprise” on Monterey Bay. The cement hull ship, sans steam engine and bronze propeller, was towed to Seacliff Beach, eight miles south of Santa Cruz, where the sea cocks were opened and the ship allowed to settle on the ocean floor. A six hundred foot pier was built and renovations got underway creating a ball room and dance floor on the main deck, a cafe in the superstructure, and carnival concessions, bingo, slot machines and a heated swimming pool on the afterdeck.
Three thousand people attended the grand opening of the Rainbow Ballroom in the summer of 1930 featuring big bands, and games of chance above and below deck. With an investment of one and a half million dollars, faltering attendance, the depression, high maintenance costs, and a winter storm that cracked the ships hull, the Seacliff Amusement Corporation went bankrupt after just two years along with the dream of competing with Santa Cruz’s popularity. The State purchased the ship for one dollar in 1936 for a popular public fishing pier, however the S.S. Palo Alto, battered by decades of storms and broken apart is now only accessible to the seabirds roosting on the deck and marine life seeking shelter in the submerged cement hull. -Bill 8/25
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