See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete - an alloy of the two greatest structural materials of all time, ice and sawdust!

It turns out that if you don't need your ship to go fast, all you need to do is have a structure that can produce enough displacement to be bouyant and stable. You could carve a ship out of marble if you wanted.

And the British attempt at a floating ice carrier:

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

Front page material for HN if ever I saw it ...

Interesting point about the use of unconventional materials like ice and sawdust. It makes me think of how often we underestimate what’s possible when we just change the materials we use. My buddy once tried building a small boat out of recycled plastics, and while it didn't quite float perfectly, it was a cool experiment that sparked a ton of discussions on sustainability.

Looking at these concrete ships, it's wild to think about how they were born out of wartime necessity. I wonder if there’s a modern parallel—are there any innovative materials or structures we might see emerging from, say, the space race or climate change? It’s like pushing the boundaries of what we consider "normal" in engineering.

I’ve also noticed that sometimes the wackiest ideas can lead to breakthroughs in traditional practices. Like, could using materials that seem unsuitable lead to new designs that could improve shipbuilding for the future? Makes you wonder what other creative paths are out there just waiting to be explored.

Maybe we can just stick an outboard motor and some runway markings on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and call that a supercarrier.

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

There was a MythBusters episode about this. The team had a pretty tough time making a working craft out of it.

https://mythresults.com/alaska-special-2

There's a concrete ship wrecked just offshore of Cape May Point in NJ. It has been deteriorating for many years and soon nothing will remain above the waterline.

At the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore there are 9 concrete ships, left over from WWII, that were deliberately sunk in a large arc to form a break-water.

It’s at a state park called Kiptopeke. You can rent kayaks and paddle out to see them up close.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kiptopeke-s-concrete-fle...

The first apotropaic gorgon was discovered at Gorham’s Cave in 2021 at the Gibraltar excavation.

The second apotropaic gorgon was Joyce's stream of consciousness, evoking images of anti-Catholic gorgons.

Paglia, Camille SS. 49 The Birth of the Western Eye

[1]: https://archive.org/stream/263791532sexualpersonaeartanddeca...

While fascinating, apotropaions are not that relevant to shipbuilding: the ships float by themselves and do not generally require supernatural protection, against Catholics or otherwise.

I grew up in South Hylton where the Cretehawser was basically dumped near Claxheugh Rock (good luck pronouncing that if you’re not a Mackem!) Proper fun 70’s and 80’s adventure to be had getting on board at low tide. Can’t imagine the authorities being happy with kids doing this today!

It had lots of stories associated with it and it was a strange thing to see just sitting there in a shipbuilding town. Happy to see it get a mention on the site [1] and there’s an article with better photos here [2].

[1] https://thecretefleet.com/wwi-uk

[2] https://fabulousnorth.com/cretehawser-wreck/

Similarly, there are also abandoned concrete barges in the Manchester ship canal: https://youtu.be/ExKPh9mszFE

There is one at Seaton Sluice, now (almost?) completely buried by sand.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36891793@N08/8033301173/

> I grew up in South Hylton where the Cretehawser was basically dumped near Claxheugh Rock (good luck pronouncing that if you’re not a Mackem!)

What?

Still alive and well in Civil Engineering departments across North America. Their equivalent to Formula Student racing teams in Mechanical Engineering.

https://www.asce.org/communities/student-members/conferences...

I participated in that competition a decade ago. The best teams had a hull that was less than half an inch thick and it didn't leak. We put glass fibers and iirc latex in the concrete mix.

On the about page

> I tried to correct the nonsense written on the appalling Wikipedia page 'Concrete Ship', only to find myself 'Indefinitely Blocked' from updating Wikipedia. Their grounds were that by citing referenceable facts from this website, I was 'self-promoting' apparently. Self promoting history ? History that has been meticulously researched and is completely free to access ? I then had the audacity to argue with one of the tinpot dictators that run Wikipedia such that I was banned from 'Talk' as well. Closed minds, fake history. This is only important because when you research anything, Wikipedia comes out top. The text then gets repeated ad nauseam. That's the problem...the nonsense on Wikipedia is extrapolated and propagated many times over. For everyone that reads this, a hundred will read Wikipedia and attach what is written to their photo or video. This fact alone means that there is a responsibility on Wikipedia - one that they take extremely lightly - to ensure that statements have adequate and reputable citations. Wikipedia is not a source, Wikipedia is never a source

Pretty strong sentiments - anyone else have this sort of experience? Bit of a bunker buster if the assertions within hold weight...

edit: found the talk page referenced [0]. It's popcorn-worthy at least.

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Concrete_ship#Nonsense_hi...

Looks like a standard newcomer to wikipedia making lots of wikipedia mistakes, learning what a source is, etc...

The dude wanted to cite himself, cmon

I’m immediately reminded of John Siracusa’s rant about Wikipedia on his old Hypercritical podcast. This is a lengthy rebuttal from (presumably) a Wikipedia lover that includes a link and timestamp to the original podcast segment [0]

I agree, verifiability makes sense, and truth can’t really be claimed without verification, and so it’s a confusing argument to say: truth should be above verifiability; but I must admit: I find it very strange that some people have information about them on their Wikipedia pages that they’re not able to correct despite _being the person_ because one can only cite a source.

The problem of circular citations exists as well, where an article is cited which itself only cites another article, and it might loop back on itself.

0 - https://www.thewikipedian.net/p/verifiability-truth-john-sir...

People not being allowed to edit their own page (and by extension, anyone that comes without verifiable info because they could be agents of said person) is an unfortunate need. I refer you to the oft-sockpuppeted page of former airline exec Frank Lorenzo [0]

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Frank_Lorenzo

You can make a ship of any material, provided the ship is large enough. That's because the amount of material grows quadratically with size whereas the boyance force grows cubic with size.

Don Alberto is used as retainer wall of one of the multiple rowing clubs in the Tigre area. Used to paddle by it and think it was a wall or something build as a pier