Palo Alto (ship)
 The Palo Alto
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The Palo Alto was a tanker that was built as a concrete ship in the USA towards the end of the First World War .
history
The ship was built by the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company of Oakland and was launched on May 29, 1919. Completed too late to be used in the war, it remained in the dock for ten years.
In 1929 it was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Company and towed to the coast of Monterey Bay off Aptos , where it was converted into a pleasure boat. A specially built pier connected the Palo Alto , which is now equipped with a swimming pool, dining and dance hall, with the beach.
After the operating company went bankrupt two years later, it broke apart in the middle in a winter storm. The ship was cannibalized and used as a fishing spot from then on. Over time, the damage to the ship became too great, so the wreck was closed to the public and remains in the sea as an artificial reef .
In the spring of 2005, oily birds were found nearby, the pollution of which could be attributed to the Palo Alto . No leakage of oil into the sea could be detected, but some parts of the ship were still contaminated. The ship was then cleaned in September 2006 so that it no longer poses an environmental hazard.
literature
- David W. Herson, Forever Facing South, The story of the SS Palo Alto "The Old Cement Ship" of Seacliff Beach (Revised third printing ed.), (2002). Santa Cruz, California: Otter B Books. ISBN 0-9617681-3-4 .
Web links
- Information about Palo Alto on the website of the California State Parks (English)
- Information about the Palo Alto on ConcreteShips.org (English)