Did you know this about Concrete ?

[Graham Payne]

I was watching TV this afternoon on the Yesterday channel.
It was about WW2 CONCRETE BUILT SHIPS.
The hulks were being used as a breakwater for the logging companies in Canada.
I must admit I was surprised, I had no idea but you live and learn.

[Keith Tindell]

I knew about ferro crete boats, ie small yachts etc, but never heard of ships. The yachts are built on a frame of chicken wire type, and then the concrete pushed into the frame. as you say, we live and learn.

[Johnny Kieran]

You can see several of these concrete ships/barges along the river Thames in London and outside towards the estuary. In fact if you ever go to "Sarfend" you'll see one or two out on the mud flats. Well, they used to be there anyway.
I've just been reminded that the one at "Sarfend" looks like two, but it's one broken in half.

[James Curry]

Concrete ships.

Some may find this article interesting okay I know it is Wiki but worth a read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Pal...ment%20complex.

SS_Palo_Alto.jpg

[Bill Morrison]

Post #1 I have seen the programme. Abandoned Engineering on Ch. 27 (UK TV) Some great episodes.

[Rodney Mills]

#3

Oy, mate! A i li-all respekt fer Sauf-end. That were me owm-toun, that were. I stills sings "Cockels and mussels, alive alive O", in me weekly barf.

Cheers (almost), Rodney

[j.sabourn]

There’s one fing one had to be careful wif when building concrete ships and that was to make sure it was the quick drying stuff. JS.

[happy daze john in oz]

WE had a number of concrete yachts here at one time.
First one I saw was in the back garden of the man who was building it.
Bit different when you see them that close up, he was mixing the concrete by hand.
Said he wanted to make sure it was the correct strength

[j.sabourn]

#8 Bet they didn’t have concrete sails ? JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

A lot of home boat builders making them out of concrete use the the wrong type of cement, they use 'Portland' cement from the builders yard instead of 'SRC' (Sulphate Resisting Cement) as used in the building of Dams or wharves in fast flowing rivers. I learnt a lot about cement when living in the Middle East as used to import half a million tons a year, I was even sent on cement buying missions, there is a lot to learn including keeping sugar and sweetened tea away from any kind of cement when mixing, it has an adverse effect. The rules were very strict in Dubai and adhered to, broken bags or sweepings could not be used on any building, low or high rise. Romanian cement was the cheapest but had the weakest bags (5 ply) incurring a lot of wastage, Japanese was the most expensive but had the strongest bags (5 ply) incurring little wastage, all had to be produced to the same specification BS747 (if I remember correctly) but the trouble occurred at the factories in Romania on a buying mission the bags are filled whilst the cement is still warm and it dries out the paper making it brittle, in Japan the bags are filled when the cement is cool and the bags retain their integrity. As a Brit I would have liked to have bought British cement, but alas they apart from being expensive they could not guarantee quantities and production dates. The Greek cement was good and we purchased a lot but their main market was West Africa where Greek shipowners sent it to rot in ships due for the scrapyard but got paid a high freight rates for it. Its an interesting world cement, and very little concrete about it !!