Concrete Shipbuilding – Argentina
10 comments
·November 17, 2025nickt
Xiol
Similarly, there are also abandoned concrete barges in the Manchester ship canal: https://youtu.be/ExKPh9mszFE
stavros
> 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?
ballpug
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...
WJW
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.
mrgriscom
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.
gehwartzen
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...
Y_Y
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.
dnemmers
And the British attempt at a floating ice carrier:
PaulDavisThe1st
Front page material for HN if ever I saw it ...
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/