on the beach of cape may lays a strange wreck of a ship that holds a long and interesting history
a few bits and pieces of rusty steel are all that is left from the famous uss atlantis a tremendous
concrete warship of the u.s navy the atlantis was built to fight a great war but finished too late
to see any actions and yes you heard me correctly a concrete ship made of the same material that
bridges and buildings are made of now you might be wondering wait isn't concrete too heavy to float
well you're right it is very heavy but it's also cheap and at that point the us was running out
of steel so although it was a sub-optimal solution it was the only one on the table
and that's how the uss atlantis and her sisters came to be the reign of the atlantis and her
sister's ships did not last very long however after all water dissolves concrete so it was not
the best idea that being said this fascinating story inspired me to explore other ships with
illogical bizarre or just terrible designs so join me in discovering the world's strangest
ships i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
much like the uss atlantis there have been several other concrete ships the first concrete ship was
built in france in 1848 by joseph lewis lambot in the 1860s feral cement barges were used in
many countries in europe to travel down canals so it was around 1896 that an italian engineer
began building small ships out of pharaoh cement a trend that would accelerate with a steel shortage
towards the end of the great war likewise the u.s navy ordered 12 concrete ships and the largest of
them was the ss selma now as for the ss atlantis itself it was a 260 foot long cargo ship powered
by a steam engine the atlantis was launched on december the 5th 1918 and could travel at speeds
of up to 10.5 knots about 12 miles per hour after two years of service the steamer retired in 1920
to a salvage yard in virginia fortunately for some and unfortunate for others the ship was rescued by
colonel jesse rosenfield who then purchased it to build a fairy dock by cape may out of the atlantis
and her two sister crafts unfortunately on june the 8th 1926 a storm hit and beached the 3000 ton
colossus no one could save the ship today it is still where it was beached or at least the pieces
of it are as concrete boats mostly dissolve after a few years you might wonder why anyone would have
built a ship that can only last a few years but this was actually not as uncommon as you may think
let me introduce you to the baron of redfruit you see there was an enticing little loophole in
european law in the late 19th century that made shipbuilding wood tax-free this was because the
wood itself was not the cargo but a part of the ship so charles barron could not let the chance
slip and he created a 304 foot long four masted bark one of the largest wooden ships ever built
at that time this tax evading vessel started its journey from quebec on its maiden voyage and its
final voyage before reaching england where the boat would be deconstructed unfortunately the
ship was not actually very seaworthy it somehow made it through the atlantic only to become
stranded in the british channel close to the target destination of london parts of the ship
drifted towards the front shore and the vessel was broken into three parts most of which was found
near kelly the tax law was changed not long after this disaster and timber drudgers as they were
known lost their value and applications another interesting deconstruction construction was the
hms zubian during the great war england built two tribal class destroyers hms zulu and hms nubian
they were part of the dover patrol group these destroyers were great at fulfilling their task
thanks to them many german operations were derailed or stopped but the destroyers
themselves sustained heavy damage as a result the british decided to put them back together
not scrapping the two great ships they did so by using parts of both boats to create a new fully
operational ship the hms zubian yes the name just like the ship was made from parts of original
names zubian had the rear of zulu and the front of nabian and just like its parent ship this vessel
did exactly what it was supposed to do annihilate german vessels the zoopian hit the waters in june
of 1917 and saw extensive service right away right off the bat she sunk german u-boat uc-50
one of the wolfs of the sea the zoopian was also an escort for bombers during the first
austin raid after the war the zoopian was retired and was broken down for scrap yet she would be
remembered as a poster child of recycling in a way so we had a ship made out of two boats
but how about a ship that is dual purposed let me introduce you to flip buoy the floating instrument
platform it's precisely what happens when you want both a vessel and a buoy but you can't choose
between the two so you make both of them in one flip switches from a 355 foot long ship to a 55
foot long above water platform thanks to ballast tanks the ship sinks underwater as the tanks fill
leaving only the habitable platform above thanks to the platform it is very stable regardless of
conditions on the sea this makes studies easier for equipment and people who need to spend
many weeks on the open water doing research after the analysis is completed tanks are emptied by
pumping pressurized air inside the ship comes out of the water and sails away to wherever it's
needed when you think about it flip is actually a very clever design another research vessel
worthy of mentioning is a true titan of the seas the ram form titan the titan is the go-to ship for
measuring seismic activity or surveys at sea even though the ship looks like a giant wedge of cheese
this shape helps maintain balance and stability even during the craziest storms this allows the
crew to stay safe ramform is capable of running up to 24 survey streams behind it
the vessel even set the world record in 2015. they ran 80.5 miles of streamers during a survey
this and many more are possible because of the engineering marvel that is titan's engine
it can create 26.4 megawatts of power enough to power over 5 000 houses it's mind-blowing
our next ship actually played a part in spreading camels yes you heard me correctly we all know that
camels originate from the deserts of africa and asia but how did they get to other parts of the
world well let me tell you the story behind the least creatively named supply ship the uss supply
the supply was a 60-foot long vessel built to fulfill u.s secretary of war
jefferson davis plan of starting a camel division the plan was created in 1855 the secretary wanted
to have a unit that could easily navigate mexican deserts as camels do great in deserts they were a
perfect candidate for the job just 10 years later after the plan was born supply was on her way to
the middle east the first shipment was supposed to bring 33 camels but after 87 long days back
to america supply brought 34. you see one was born along the way camels turned out to adapt
significantly to long sea voyages after that there was another shipment of camels this time
41 unfortunately the experiment failed miserably with most of the camels being sold off to zoos
and circuses and others ran away apparently to this day some wild offspring of camels
brought to the united states are roaming american deserts speaking of unusual let me tell you about
the first and only pie crete aircraft carrier the hms hopper kick now if you're wondering what pie
creed is let me explain when you mix wood pulp with water and then freeze it you get pie creek
a material stronger than concrete even bullets ricochet off it although this was imagined to
be a valuable asset during world war ii when the project was developed it never made it out of the
testing phase only a 60 foot small model was built in canada for testing weighing 1 000 tons the ship
had a one horsepower engine to keep it frozen as the whole vessel was a dirty ice cube and actually
melting is only one of the many potential problems of pycrete ships which is why the design was
ultimately abandoned now when it comes to weird aircraft carrier designs i also need to mention a
freshwater aircraft carrier that served the great lakes during world war ii the uss wolverine it was
a paddle wheel steamer cruising between cleveland and buffalo since 1942 it was purchased by the u.s
army to become a training aircraft carrier even though it was much smaller than modern carriers
it was enough to serve in the training of pilots indeed the wolverine helped over 17
thousand pilots prepare for landing and takeoff to some extent the uss wolverine contributed to
america's winning of the war and perhaps it was not that small of a contribution given the size
of the actual aircraft carrier the uss wolverine is a way of showing how unusual designs might
work out just great now the vessel of billionaire howard hughes a ship designed to farm manganese
nodules at the bottom of the ocean you could see that this design was not all that well thought out
surprisingly this plan came from none other than the cia main office it was thought that they could
design a ship that could hook a sunken soviet nuclear submarine under the disguise of doing
a little sea farming they designed a giant ship with a hook similar to those in supermarkets where
you try to catch a teddy bear and constantly lose you can easily see why this design didn't work out
if we can't beat the tiny supermarket crane then the cia shouldn't have expected to do the same
with a giant one and against much much more strenuous odds ultimately they did not succeed as
the hook snapped off and the whole mission failed miserably with the nuclear sub staying where it
was 17 000 feet under the sea even though the effort was admirable the cia's operation looked
foolish in the end finally i wanted to discuss the ultimate ghost ship the ss bachmo launched in 1914
by the hudson bay company this 200-foot vessel was designed to cross the arctic to get supplies to
sweden and other countries at war the ship served its purpose until 1931 when it got trapped in
the ice off the coast of alaska the crew left the ship and walked across the ice to the nearest town
and when they returned to check on their vessel it had vanished the ship was simply gone never to
be found again in the years to follow the bachimo was cited dozens of times as recently as 1969 40
years after it had escaped the ice no wreckage was ever found leaving many to ponder its fate
now as enticing as these stories are i find the story of chicago's christmas tree shipwreck
to be the most interesting of them all and you're in luck because we did an entire
video on just that topic so click the link check out the video and subscribe to its history for
new videos every thursday and saturday until next time this is ryan silkesh signing off