Misplaced Pages

#591408

48-591: The 1,600 acres (650 ha) of land on which the Naval Base sits today was occupied in 1918 by a coalition of concrete ship building firms known as the Emergency Fleet Corporation, under the single company name Pacific Marine Construction. But Pacific Marine began to lose profits with the conclusion of World War I, and negotiated a return of the land back to the City of San Diego . Meanwhile,

96-488: A state , or a non-state actor , in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may be of a combat or non-combat nature and may be referred to by a code name for the purpose of national security . Military operations are often known for their more generally accepted common usage names than their actual operational objectives . Military operations can be classified by

144-572: A submarine shaped freighter which they claimed could achieve speeds of 75 knots. The war ended any more research into the project. In retrospect many believe the claims were greatly overstated. Concrete barges also served in the Pacific during 1944 and 1945. From the Charleroi, Pennsylvania , Mail , February 5, 1945: Largest unit of the Army's fleet is a BRL, (Barge, Refrigerated, Large) which

192-595: A 6,125-ton steamer named the SS ; Faith . Faith was launched March 18, 1918. She cost $ 750,000 to build. She was used to carry bulk cargo for trade until 1921, when she was sold and scrapped as a breakwater in Cuba. On April 12, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved the Emergency Fleet Corporation program which oversaw the construction of 24 ferrocement ships for the war. However, when

240-572: A January 2017 storm. The SS McKittrick , launched in 1921 in Wilmington, North Carolina , later became the SS  Monte Carlo , a gaming ship off Coronado, California , that ran aground on December 31, 1936. The wreck is periodically exposed by strong storm tides. The vessel aground in the surf at Shipwreck Beach on the north shore of Lanai , Hawaii is the wreck of YOG-42 , 20°55′17″N 156°54′37″W  /  20.921299°N 156.910139°W  / 20.921299; -156.910139 ,

288-581: A collection of vessels intentionally beached at Purton during the first half of the twentieth century as a method to prevent coastal erosion, includes eight ferro-concrete barges. 51°44′14″N 2°27′21″W  /  51.737178°N 2.455798°W  / 51.737178; -2.455798 A large collection of abandoned concrete barges are seen at River Thames in Rainham, London . 51°29′55″N 0°10′55″E  /  51.498608°N 0.18202°E  / 51.498608; 0.18202 The wreckage of

336-628: A concrete gasoline barge built for the US Navy in 1942 and placed in service in 1943. The wreck is often misidentified as a Liberty ship . The remains of the Col. J. E. Sawyer can be seen near the USS ; Yorktown in Charleston Harbor, 32°47′56″N 79°54′25″W  /  32.798761°N 79.906863°W  / 32.798761; -79.906863 , South Carolina. The wreckage of

384-499: Is at Powell River , British Columbia , 49°51′55″N 124°33′21″W  /  49.865238°N 124.555821°W  / 49.865238; -124.555821 , where a lumber mill uses ten floating ferrocement ships as a breakwater, known as The Hulks . The Kiptopeke Breakwater in Chesapeake Bay , Virginia, 37°09′51″N 75°59′29″W  /  37.164267°N 75.991402°W  / 37.164267; -75.991402 ,

432-573: Is formed by nine sunken concrete ships built in World War II. SS  San Pasqual , a former oil tanker, lies off the coast of Cayo Las Brujas , Cuba , 22°37′24″N 79°13′24″W  /  22.623439°N 79.22327°W  / 22.623439; -79.22327 , where it served as a hotel, then as a base for divers. Currently, the San Pasqual is abandoned. The wreckage of SS  Atlantus (commissioned in 1919, sunk in 1926)

480-570: Is going to the South Pacific to serve fresh frozen foods – even ice cream – to troops weary of dry rations. The vessel can keep 64 carloads of frozen meats and 500 tons of fresh produce indefinitely at 12°F. Equipment on board includes an ice machine of five-ton daily capacity and a freezer that turns out more than a gallon of ice cream a minute. Three of the floating warehouses, designed for tropical warfare, have been built of concrete at National City, Calif., and cost $ 1,120,000 each. In

528-471: Is visible off Sunset Beach near Cape May , New Jersey , 38°56′40″N 74°58′19″W  /  38.944322°N 74.972083°W  / 38.944322; -74.972083 . The tanker SS  Selma is located northwest of the fishing pier at Seawolf Park in Galveston , 29°20′39″N 94°47′11″W  /  29.344249°N 94.786343°W  / 29.344249; -94.786343 . The ship

SECTION 10

#1732790136592

576-546: The Urlich Finsterwalder , a small Nazi-era German tanker, is visible in Dąbie Lake , near Szczecin , Poland. It was sunk during a Soviet air raid on 20 March 1945. In the late 1950s Polish authorities decided to lift it and tow it to another location to be converted into swimming pools, but during that operation it began sinking again, so it was abandoned in shallow water, where it has remained since. During

624-718: The Cape Fear ( List of shipwrecks in 1920 "10.21 30 October") and the Sapona which they presumably built. About the same time, the California businessman W. Leslie Comyn took the initiative to build ferrocement ships on his own. He formed the San Francisco Ship Building Company (in Oakland, California ), and hired Alan Macdonald and Victor Poss to design the first American ferrocement ship,

672-723: The D-Day Normandy landings , where they were used as part of the Mulberry harbour defenses, for fuel and munitions transportation, as blockships , and as floating pontoons . In 1940, 200 were commissioned to serve as petrol-carrying barges. The barges weighed 160 tons and were constructed on the London dockside before being craned into the water by a giant crane. Some barges were fitted with engines and used as mobile canteens and troop carriers. Some of these vessels survive as abandoned wrecks or sea defenses (against storm surges) in

720-911: The German occupation of Greece (1942–1944) during World War II, the German Army built 24 concrete cargo vessels for transporting goods to various Greek islands , including Crete . These were constructed in the Perama shipbuilding area of Piraeus . After the war, many of the vessels were used as piers (e.g., in Rafina , 38°01′19″N 24°00′37″E  /  38.022056°N 24.010368°E  / 38.022056; 24.010368 ) and breakwaters (e.g., in Agios Georgios, Methana , 37°38′18″N 23°23′40″E  /  37.638340°N 23.394544°E  / 37.638340; 23.394544 ). Due to

768-772: The SS  Sapona is visible slightly south of Bimini Island in the Bahamas, 25°39′02″N 79°17′36″W  /  25.65063°N 79.29337°W  / 25.65063; -79.29337 . It is a popular snorkeling site and boating landmark in the area. One of the few concrete ships built for but not completed in time to be used in World War I, the SS Crete Boom , lies abandoned in the River Moy , 54°08′08″N 9°08′18″W  /  54.135515°N 9.138452°W  / 54.135515; -9.138452 just outside

816-492: The Thames Estuary including near Rainham Marshes . ) Two remain in civil use as moorings at Westminster . One notable wartime FCB, previously beached at Canvey Island , was partially removed in 2003 by the local sailing club, whose land it was on, for fear it was a "danger to children". Local historians disagreed with the club and were displeased with their actions. In 1944 a concrete firm in California proposed

864-621: The 1960s, the American Society of Civil Engineers has sponsored the National Concrete Canoe Competition. In Europe, especially the Netherlands, concrete is still used to build some of the barges on which houseboats are built. Surviving wartime concrete ships are no longer in use as ships. Several continue in use in various forms, mostly as museums or breakwaters. The largest collection

912-461: The Navy knew what the design of the building would look like prior to the installation. Concrete ship Concrete ships are built primarily with ferrocement ( reinforced concrete ) hulls, reinforced with steel bars. This contrasts against more traditional materials, such as pure steel or wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are cheap and readily available, while

960-497: The Navy was exploring the small tract of land to establish a west coast ship repair facility and moved on the opportunity to acquire the land. By 1920, the Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation had negotiated the transfer of land improvements to the United States Navy . Still, three obstacles stood in the way of a Navy repair facility: the coalition company, Schofield Engineering Co., still retained an option to purchase

1008-805: The Pacific. Since the late 1930s, there have also been ferrocement pleasure boats . The oldest known ferrocement watercraft was a dinghy built by Joseph-Louis Lambot in Southern France in 1848. Lambot's boat was featured in the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1855. Beginning in the 1860s, ferrocement barges were built in Europe for use on canals, and around 1896, an Italian engineer, Carlo Gabellini, began building small ships out of ferrocement. The most famous of his ships

SECTION 20

#1732790136592

1056-532: The San Diego Repair Base. The floating dry docks became the central repair and training facilities on the base which were crucial to the World War II mission. After World War II, base operations were again reorganized, with a post-war mission to provide logistical support (including repair and dry-docking) to ships of the active fleet. On 15 September 1946, the Secretary of the Navy re-designated

1104-482: The base decommissioned 77 destroyers and commissioned seven. By 1937, the Destroyer Base had added two additional tracts of land and by then, its 29 buildings and other improvements amounted to a cost of more than $ 3.2 million. The base then expanded heavily during World War II , and by 1942, the Navy had added expanded fleet training schools, and an amphibious force training unit. By the following year, it

1152-528: The base and near various military family housing areas, medical and dental care, religious services, transportation, utilities, legal support, counseling and assistance, facility maintenance , fire protection, educational services, and child care for more than 300 children daily at the base Child Development Center. The base has a plant value of $ 4.5 billion. An explosion and fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) on July 12, 2020 resulted in

1200-606: The base became the hub of all Navy port operations for the Region, assumed logistical responsibility for both Naval Medical Center San Diego and the Region headquarters and was re-designated Naval Base San Diego . Naval Base San Diego is home port to approximately 54 ships, including 46 U.S. Navy ships, two Littoral Combat Ships, two U.S. Coast Guard cutters, and eight ships of the Military Sealift Command , as well as research and auxiliary vessels. Ashore,

1248-794: The base has approximately 150 separate tenant commands and other Navy support facilities, each having specific and specialized fleet support missions. The base is a workplace for approximately 26,000 military, civilian, and contract personnel. Additionally, the base has rooms to house more than 4,000 men and women in modern apartment-like barracks , including new state-of-the-art residential towers. Support services on base includes less direct and indirect fleet support: waterfront operations, force protection (security), supply, Navy Exchange and Commissary shopping centers, bachelor quarters, food services, public affairs, administration, transient personnel administration, fiscal management, equal employment opportunity, civil engineering, family services, recreation on

1296-466: 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

1344-548: The crew of the 265-ft. barges are 23 Army men. One concrete barge under tow by Jicarilla (ATF-104) was lost off Saipan during a typhoon , and another barge damaged the Moreton Bay Pile Light in Brisbane , but the rest served admirably. Modern hobbyists also build ferrocement boats (ferroboats), as their construction methods do not require special tools, and the materials are comparatively cheap. Since

1392-455: The disadvantages are that construction labor costs are high, as are operating costs. (Ferrocement ships require thick hulls, which results in either a larger cross-sectional area that hurts hydrodynamics, or leaves less space for cargo.) 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

1440-468: The eventual decommissioning and scrapping of the ship. (As of November 2023) Naval Base San Diego is the setting for the 2005 naval thriller novel Treason by Don Brown . The Navy has promised to alter the design of one of the buildings on site, which from above clearly resembles a Nazi swastika pitched at the correct 45-degree angle the Nazis used. A report by SFGATE suggests that top officials in

1488-401: The existing plant; a local shipping board had not granted permission for more construction; and finally, Congress had not yet passed an appropriations bill to authorize funds to begin work. Nevertheless, by June 1920, Congress passed the appropriations bill- $ 750,000 of which was earmarked for the navy repair base. With the money appropriated, Schofield still delayed in releasing their option on

Naval Base San Diego - Misplaced Pages Continue

1536-587: The galley at a single sitting on the base. Later, in the 1990s, the Naval Station became the principal homeport of the then U.S. Pacific Fleet , when the Long Beach Naval Shipyard was closed for the final time on 30 September 1994. Naval Station San Diego was realigned under Commander, Navy Region Southwest and became one in a triad of metropolitan Navy bases that now make up the bulk of the metro area Navy's presence. With that change,

1584-478: The land. At the time, Admiral Roger Welles , then Commandant of the 11th Naval District , had grown weary of Schofield's delaying tactics and threatened to pull stakes and establish a repair base in San Pedro, Los Angeles , California. His threats worked. On 21 February 1921, Welles assumed formal custody of the property. In May 1921, Commander H.N. Jensen, Commanding Officer of the repair tender USS Prairie ,

1632-514: The need to deliver necessary raw materials (such as oil, weapons, ammunition, food and drugs) through mined river currents, Adolf Hitler ordered the production of 50 concrete ships for different purposes. Most were concrete barges made for oil transportation from Romania, and needed raw materials that were driven to the Baltic front. A smaller number of ships was intended for transporting food (specializing in cold storages). The most valuable ships were

1680-478: The repair base Naval Station, San Diego . By the end of 1946, the base had grown to 294 buildings with floor space square footage of more than 6,900,000 square feet (640,000 m), berthing facilities included five piers of more than 18,000 feet (5,500 m) of berthing space. Land then totaled more than 921 acres (373 ha) and 16 miles (26 km) of roads. Barracks could accommodate 380 officers and 18,000 enlisted men. More than 3,500 sailors could be fed in

1728-404: The scale and scope of force employment, and their impact on the wider conflict. The scope of military operations can be: Parallel to and reflecting this framework for operations are organized elements within the armed forces which prepare for and conduct operations at various levels of war . While there is a general correlation between the size of units , the area within which they operate, and

1776-514: The scope of mission they perform, the correlation is not absolute. In fact, it is ultimately the mission that a unit performs that determines the level of war within which it operates. The operational level of war occupies roughly the middle ground between the campaign's strategic focus and the tactics of an engagement. It describes "a distinct intermediate level of war between military strategy , governing war in general, and tactics, involving individual battles". For example, during World War II ,

1824-478: The specialized ship-hospitals, which evacuated seriously wounded and "important" soldiers to German hospitals along rivers. Several concrete ships were aground on the west beach of Iwo To (Iwo Jima) in Japan, 24°46′57″N 141°17′35″E  /  24.78238°N 141.293095°E  / 24.78238; 141.293095 , to make a breakwater by the US forces in 1945. Most of them were broken by typhoons but one

1872-545: The town of Ballina , County Mayo , Ireland, and is considered of much interest to the area's many tourists. A concrete barge, the Cretetree , is beached in the harbour of the Isle of Scalpay near Tarbert , Harris, Scotland, 57°52′37″N 6°42′00″W  /  57.876873°N 6.699965°W  / 57.876873; -6.699965 . It was built by Aberdeen Concrete Ships , and completed in 1919. The Purton Hulks ,

1920-536: The war ended in November 1918, only 12 ferrocement ships were under construction and none of them had been completed. These 12 ships were eventually completed, but soon sold to private companies who used them for light-trading, storage, and scrap. Other countries that looked into ferrocement ship construction during this period included Canada, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Between

1968-600: The world wars, there was little commercial or military interest in concrete ship construction. The reason was that other shipbuilding methods were cheaper and less labor-intensive, and other kinds of ships were cheaper to operate. However, in 1942, after the U.S. entered World War II , the U.S. military found that its contractors had steel shortages. Consequently, the U.S. government contracted McCloskey & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build 24 self-propelled concrete ships. Construction started in July 1943. The shipyard

Naval Base San Diego - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-539: Was an 84-foot (26 m) vessel of 400 tons named Namsenfjord . With the success of this ship, additional ferrocement vessels were ordered, and in October 1917, the U.S. government invited Fougner to head a study into the feasibility of building ferrocement ships in the United States. The Fougner Concrete Shipbuilding Company, Flushing Bay , New York , reported calculated cost was of $ 290 per deadweight ton for

2064-461: Was at Hookers Point in Tampa, Florida , and at its peak, it employed 6,000 workers. The U.S. government also contracted with two companies in California for the construction of concrete barge ships . Barge ships were large vessels that lacked engines to propel them. Instead, they were towed by tugs. In Europe, ferrocement barges (FCBs) played a crucial role in World War II operations, particularly in

2112-574: Was determined the scope of operations exceeded the base's basic function as a Destroyer Base. On 7 October 1943, the base was re-designated the U.S. Repair Base, San Diego , a title it retained throughout World War II. Between 1943 and 1945, the newly named base performed conversion, overhaul, maintenance, and battle damage repair to more than 5,117 ships. Central to this maintenance were the Navy's construction and delivery of 155 new floating dry docks deployed to various bases, including three 3,000-ton, three 1,000-ton and one 900-ton floating docks remaining at

2160-493: Was directed to moor at the site to establish repair operations. On 23 February 1922, acting Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt Jr. issued General Order 78 establishing the facility as the U.S. Destroyer Base, San Diego. During its first years in commission, the base grew rapidly as repair facilities expanded, torpedo and radio schools were established, and more shops were constructed. During 1924,

2208-619: Was launched the same day Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles , ending the war, so it never saw wartime duty and instead was used as an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico . The SS  Palo Alto , a concrete tanker launched on May 29, 1919, was purchased and turned into an amusement pier, and is still visible at Seacliff State Beach , near Aptos , California , 36°58′11″N 121°54′50″W  /  36.969704°N 121.913947°W  / 36.969704; -121.913947 . It broke up during

2256-530: Was the Liguria . Between 1908 and 1914, larger ferrocement barges began to be made in Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and United States. The remains of a British ship of this type, the auxiliary coaster Violette (built 1919), can be seen at Hoo , Kent , England. On August 2, 1917, Nicolay Fougner of Norway launched the first self-propelled ferrocement ship intended for ocean travel. This

2304-464: Was used as a pier. Japan built four concrete ships named Takechi Maru No. 1 to 4 ( 武智丸 ) during World War II. After the war, two of them turned into a breakwater in Kure, Hiroshima , 34°16′48″N 132°45′23″E  /  34.280089°N 132.756295°E  / 34.280089; 132.756295 . Military operation A military operation ( op ) is the coordinated military actions of

#591408