SS Selma (1919)

Last updated
SS Selma
S.S. Selma, Galveston, TX - DSC 0125.jpg
Wreckage of SS Selma in 2013
History
NameSS Selma
BuilderF.F. Ley and Company, Mobile, Alabama
Launched28 June 1919
FateAbandoned in 1922
General characteristics
Tonnage
Length425 ft (129.54 m)
Beam54 ft (16.46 m)
Draught36 ft (10.97 m)
Propulsion
  • T.3-cyl.
  • 359 nhp
  • Single screw
SS Selma (steamship)
Relief map of Texas.png
Red pog.svg
SS Selma
Usa edcp relief location map.png
Red pog.svg
SS Selma
Nearest city Galveston, TX
Coordinates 29°20′39″N94°47′11″W / 29.3442°N 94.7863°W / 29.3442; -94.7863 Coordinates: 29°20′39″N94°47′11″W / 29.3442°N 94.7863°W / 29.3442; -94.7863
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
NRHP reference No. 93001449 [1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 5, 1994

SS Selma was an oil tanker built in 1919 by F.F. Ley and Company, Mobile, Alabama. President Woodrow Wilson approved the construction of 24 concrete vessels of which only 12 were actually completed.

Contents

SS Selma is the only permanent, and prominent, wreck along the Houston Ship Channel. It lies approximately one mile north of Galveston Island.

Construction and career

Steel shortages during World War I led the US to build experimental concrete ships, the largest of which was the SS Selma, today partially submerged in Galveston Bay and visible from both the Houston Ship Channel and Seawolf Park.

SS Selma was built in Mobile, Alabama, and named to honor Selma, Alabama, for its successful wartime liberty loan drive. The ship was launched on June 28, 1919, the same day Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I. As a result, the 7,500-ton ship never served during the war. Instead she was placed into service as an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico.

On May 31, 1920, the Selma hit a jetty in Tampico, Mexico, ripping a 60 foot hole in her hull. After attempts to repair the ship in Galveston failed and efforts to sell the ship proved unsuccessful, US officials decided to intentionally scuttle the ship. A channel 1,500 feet long and 25 feet deep was dug to a point just off Pelican Island's eastern shoreline where on March 9, 1922, the ship was laid to rest. The wreck of the Selma has since been the object of failed plans to convert it for use as a fishing pier, pleasure resort, and an oyster farm. Long a source of curiosity and local legend, it remains important to scientists who continue to study aspects of its concrete construction.

A. Pat Daniels (1917-2011), a Texas journalist, historian, and author, purchased the ship in 1990 from Novie Brown (Hargett) after discovering that it had been privately owned since 6 days after being scuttled. Through Daniels' efforts, the SS Selma was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was recognized with an Official Texas Historical Commission Marker located on nearby Pelican Island, and was named both a Texas State Archeological Landmark and the official flagship of the Texas Army. Daniels and his friend Jim Saye held an annual party for the SS Selma for over 25 years on Galveston Island attended by hundreds of people. After Daniels' death in 2011, ownershipship was transferred to his friend William R. Cox, who had helped Daniels incorporate the SS Selma as protection from a potential liability lawsuit. After William Cox passed in 2015, ownership of the SS Selma passed to his son, Ken Cox. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galveston, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles (542 km2), with a population of 53,695 in 2020, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

USS <i>Hatteras</i> (1861) Union Navy ship

The very first USS Hatteras was a 1,126-ton iron-hulled steamer purchased by the Union Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the Union blockade of the ports and waterways of the Confederate States of America. During an engagement with the disguised Confederate commerce raider, CSS Alabama, she was taken by surprise and was sunk off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The wreck site is one of the few listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its location away from destructive surf and because of the ship's side-wheel design, which marks the transition between wooden sailing ships and steam-powered ships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vigor Shipyards</span> Major American shipyard company

Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United States and the Gulf. Todd Shipyards were a major part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program for World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galveston Bay</span> Estuary bay near Houston on the Texas Gulf Coast

Galveston Bay is a bay in the western Gulf of Mexico along the upper coast of Texas. It is the seventh-largest estuary in the United States, and the largest of seven major estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropical marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water, which supports a wide variety of marine life. With a maximum depth of about 10 feet (3 m) and an average depth of only 6 feet (2 m), it is unusually shallow for its size.

USS <i>Cavalla</i> (SS-244) US Navy Gato-class submarine in service 1943-1946, 1951-1952, 1953-1968

USS Cavalla (SS/SSK/AGSS-244), a Gato-class submarine, is a submarine of the United States Navy named for a salt water fish, best known for sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku.

Concrete ships are built of steel and ferrocement instead of more traditional materials, such as steel or wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are cheap and readily available, while the disadvantages are that construction labor costs are high, as are operating costs. During the late 19th century, there were concrete river barges in Europe, and during both World War I and World War II, steel shortages led the US military to order the construction of small fleets of ocean-going concrete ships, the largest of which was the SS Selma. United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for concrete ships-barges was Type B ship. Few concrete ships were completed in time to see wartime service during World War I, but during 1944 and 1945, concrete ships and barges were used to support U.S. and British invasions in Europe and the Pacific. Since the late 1930s, there have also been ferrocement pleasure boats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Morgan (Alabama)</span> United States historic place

Fort Morgan is a historic masonry pentagonal bastion fort at the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama, United States. Named for Revolutionary War hero Daniel Morgan, it was built on the site of the earlier Fort Bowyer, an earthen and stockade type fortification involved in the final land battles of the War of 1812. Construction was completed in 1834 and it received its first garrison in March of the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galveston Seawall</span> United States historic place

The Galveston Seawall is a seawall in Galveston, Texas, that was built after the Galveston hurricane of 1900 for protection from future hurricanes. Construction began in September 1902, and the initial segment was completed on July 29, 1904. From 1904 to 1963, the seawall was extended from 3.3 miles (5.3 km) to over 10 miles (16 km).

SS V.A. Fogg was a modified T2 tanker built in 1943, as SS Four Lakes. After service in World War II, she was eventually sold into private ownership. She was renamed V.A. Fogg in 1971, shortly before she exploded and sank off Freeport, Texas.

USS <i>Stewart</i> (DE-238)

USS Stewart (DE–238) is an Edsall-class destroyer escort, the third United States Navy ship so named. This ship was named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, who commanded USS Constitution during the War of 1812. Stewart is one of only two preserved destroyer escorts in the U.S. and is the only Edsall-class vessel to be preserved. She is on display in Galveston, Texas as a museum ship and is open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seawolf Park</span>

Seawolf Park is a memorial to USS Seawolf (SS-197), a United States Navy Sargo-class submarine mistakenly sunk by U.S. Navy forces in 1944 during World War II. It is located on Pelican Island, just north of Galveston, Texas, in the United States. The park has two museum ships, submarine and a destroyer escort, along with parts from three other vessels and offshore the remains of a former merchant ship. Other activities at the park include a picnic area and fishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropical Storm Elena (1979)</span> Atlantic tropical storm in 1979

Tropical Storm Elena was a weak tropical storm that moved ashore along Texas in the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. The sixth tropical storm of the season, Elena developed from a tropical wave to the south of Louisiana on August 29. It tracked generally west-northwest, strengthening little before making landfall on Matagorda Island on September 1 as a minimal tropical storm; the storm quickly dissipated over land. Elena dropped moderate rainfall along its path, causing two direct deaths in Houston from drowning; storm damage was minor, amounting to less than $10 million. Lightning from the storm set fire to an oil supertanker in Houston, causing three indirect deaths and 13 injuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Gulf Coast</span> Texas coastal boundary with Gulf of Mexico

Texas Gulf Coast is an intertidal zone which borders the coastal region of South Texas, Southeast Texas, and the Texas Coastal Bend. The Texas coastal geography boundaries the Gulf of Mexico encompassing a geographical distance relative bearing at 367 miles (591 km) of coastline according to CRS and 3,359 miles (5,406 km) of shoreline according to NOAA.

Several steamships have borne the name Selma:

T1 tanker Class of tanker ships

The T1 tanker or T1 are a class of sea worthy small tanker ships used to transport fuel oil before and during World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War. The T1 tanker classification is still in use today. T1 tankers are about 200 to 250 feet in length and are able to sustain a top speed of about 12 knots. The hull designation AO is used by the US Navy to denote the ship is a T1 oil tanker and AOG that the T1 is a gasoline tanker. The small size allows the T1 to enter just about any sea port or to anchor around a small island, this was very useful during the Pacific War. The T1 tanker can carry about 48,000 to 280,000 bbls. Some T1 tankers were used to transport goods other than oil, a few were used for black oil-crude oil, diesel, chemicals and rarely bulk cargo like grain. T1 tankers are also called liquid cargo carriers. The T1 tanker has about a 6,000 to 35,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) of cargo. The small size also gives the ships short turn around time for repair, cleaning, loading and unloading. A T1 tanker carrying dirty cargo, like crude oil needs a few weeks of labor to clean before carrying clean cargo. Most T1 ships during World War II were named after major oil fields.

<i>Racer</i><span class="nowrap" style="padding-left:0.1em;">s</span> hurricane Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1837

Racer's hurricane was a destructive tropical cyclone that had severe effects in northeastern Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in early October 1837. It was named after the Royal Navy ship HMS Racer, which encountered the cyclone in the northwestern Caribbean. Termed "one of the most famous and destructive hurricanes of the century" by meteorology historian David Ludlum, the storm first affected Jamaica with flooding rainfall and strong winds on September 26 and 27, before entering the Gulf of Mexico by October 1. As the hurricane struck northern Tamaulipas and southern Texas, it slowed to a crawl and turned sharply northeastward. The storm battered the Gulf Coast from Texas to the Florida Panhandle between October 3 and 7. After crossing the Southeastern United States, it emerged into the Atlantic shipping lanes off the Carolinas by October 9.

The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Wikipedia's articles on recreational dive sites. The level of coverage may vary:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of recreational dive sites</span> Hierarchical outline list of articles about rereational dive sites

Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Petroleum Transport Corporation</span> Former US Shipping Company

American Petroleum Transport Corporation was an oil shipping company founded in New York City in 1936. Daniel K. Ludwig was President of American Petroleum Transport Corporation. In 1939 American Petroleum Transport Corporation operated eight tanker ships from the Gulf of Mexico to Hatteras, North Carolina. American Petroleum Transport Corporation was active in supporting the World War II efforts. Some tanker ships American Petroleum Transport Corporation operated were sunk by German U-boat submarines. Daniel K. Ludwig founded in 1936 the company National Bulk Carriers.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. Strange Saga of the SS Selma by A. Pat Daniels, 2011