The Concrete Ship

During and after the first World War, the Liberty Ship Company of Brunswick, Georgia, produced 12 ships made of concrete.  The second one was the SS Atlantus.

The Atlantus had a short but successful run of about two years, during which it  was used to transport American troops back home from Europe and also to transport coal in New England.  In 1920, it was retired to a salvage yard in Virginia.

Six years later, the Atlantus was purchased by Colonel Jesse Rosenfeld for use in the creation of a ferry dock out of her and two of her sister ships.  The plan was to dig a channel to the shore where the Atlantus would be placed, and the other two ships would be placed in a Y formation, creating a slip for a ferry to dock.

However, those plans didn’t last very long.  In June 1926, about three months after the Atlantus had been towed to Cape May NJ, a storm came up that caused the ship to break free of her moorings and run aground 150 feet off the coast.  And she’s been sitting there every since.

However, time has not been kind to her.  there is very little still visible, so if you want to see a real life shipwreck and in you’re in the Cape May area, go check it out.

The SS Atlantus  is located off of Sunset Beach, Sunset Blvd, Cape May, NJ 08204.