# Wreck off Bolivar beach front



## jeffm66 (Sep 14, 2010)

Any one know what it is? How old?


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

It's been there for all of my 51 years. It's know as the Cigar Ship because whats left of it looks like a cigar. If anyone has any historical data I would love to know what wreck it is and when?


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

This one?

https://www.crystalbeach.com/selma.htm

TH


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## Tortuga (May 21, 2004)

I never heard of it as the 'Cigar Ship'... Always known at the 'Concrete Ship' or the 'Selma'...


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## shoalnuff (Dec 18, 2013)

Tortuga said:


> I never heard of it as the 'Cigar Ship'... Always known at the 'Concrete Ship' or the 'Selma'...


The Selma is the one everyone refers to as the Concrete ship. The one he is talking about is right off of the Bolivar beach front. The Selma is right off the edge of the ship channel.


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## bwguardian (Aug 30, 2005)

Been there ever since I can remember...always thought it was an old shrimp boat, but never been too close to it.


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## Swampus (Sep 1, 2005)

That Dude still live there?
Some Stories on that boat...


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## planohog (Nov 1, 2006)

google not showing much except about the Selma ( cement ship above water ). There is a pretty good historical read about port bolivar

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rrb06


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## planohog (Nov 1, 2006)

found it , ill PM original poster.


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

They sank one off the north Galveston jetty, too.


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## ReedA1691 (Jan 29, 2018)

OK, so I am confused. I know the old concrete ship on the HSC side of Pelican Island and of a sunken shrimp boat outside the boat cut of the North Galveston Jetty and know there are other shrimp boats that have sunk along our beachfronts of Texas, but what, and where, is this one off of the Bolivar beachfront of which a few of you are speaking?


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## Fishin' Soldier (Dec 25, 2007)

Are you speaking of this one at the bolivar pocket? Directly out from Rettilon road?


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

Fishin' Soldier said:


> Are you speaking of this one at the bolivar pocket? Directly out from Rettilon road?


That is the one I was referring to. The Selma is off of Pelican Island and a very well documented cement oil tanker from WWI.

Old timers called it the "cigar ship". Looks to be about 130' in length. Google history has it there as far back as they have aerial photos in 1969. Too big to be a shrimp boat.


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

I even found a drone video of it but no name or any other info...


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## Tortuga (May 21, 2004)

Great drone pix, Tommy..

Could be remains of tanker or freighter sunk by german U-boats during WW 2. 
They torpedoed and sank 75 ships in the GOM during the war. Germans kept 24 subs working the Gulf all during the war. Regular shooting gallery for them.

We weren't told a word about it during the war... Morale purposes I guess.


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## jeffm66 (Sep 14, 2010)

That is the one, I just saw it last weekend, never fished there before.



Its Catchy said:


> I even found a drone video of it but no name or any other info...


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## planohog (Nov 1, 2006)

That looks shallow, probably 5 foot or so .


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## habanerojooz (Dec 4, 2006)

I remember wading the pocket in the late 80's and seeing that sunken ship. Back then, you could prominently see it when standing on shore. There's a sunken barge on the backside of Bolivar on French Town road that was a great spot for flounder during the winter. The barge is like that ship, rusting and rotting away and there is hardly anything left of it anymore.


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## riopga (Feb 15, 2017)

Been there for all of my 60 years. My family and the folks around the jetty base called it the Whaleback, cause that's what it looked like. It can hold some trout at times, just like any structure. I like to throw big silver spoons around it when the water is clear.


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## Drundel (Feb 6, 2006)

I've always wondered what it was too.


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## ReedA1691 (Jan 29, 2018)

planohog said:


> That looks shallow, probably 5 foot or so .


You may not be off by much. I would think closer to 8 or 9 feet other than immediately around the ship where sand bars have obviously built up around it.

The Bolivar Pocket has been filling in since the jetties were built and, to my knowledge, has never had any of it dredged out. We used to wade from the posts that block off beach driving south of Rettilion Rd, on an almost straight line towards the boat cut in the north jetty and not until you get close do you have to angle over towards the jetty to keep from getting in over your head.


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## Ark8912 (Aug 5, 2019)

Does anyone have any details on this?


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## Its Catchy (Apr 10, 2014)

Ark8912 said:


> Does anyone have any details on this?


No details yet. Other than we know it's been there for at least 60 years and locals used to call it the "cigar ship" because it resembles a cigar from the beach near the Bolivar Pocket.

Google search has not turned up anything. I am assuming it is a well documented shipwreck.


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## ACC (Apr 27, 2013)

I recall reading somewhere that the wreck off Bolivar is a Civil War blockade runner. There used to be an island off Bolivar named something or another Caye. The ship was being chased by a Union gunboat and tried to run between the island and the beach, maybe even at night. It ran aground and was lost.


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## Icetrey (Oct 8, 2007)

No details on the ships origin. But I will say you'll are a bit off on depth. It's about 12ft deep around it depending on which side of it you're on.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## Erlbon (Jan 15, 2020)

*This is the wreck of the concrete tanker Durham.*



Ark8912 said:


> Does anyone have any details on this?


Hi, I registered on this board just to give my input on this wreck. I'm currently researching the history of all concrete ships ever built, and I'm fairly sure that this is the forepart of "Durham" (221004).

The Durham, along with her sister "Darlington" was a concrete tanker built by McDonald Engineering in Aransas in 1919-1920. They had a very unusual design, the hull consisting of two large cylinders placed side by side, not unlike the whaleback ships built for the Great Lakes during the turn of the century. However, they were woefully underpowered with a grand total of 320 HP for 2000 DWT, which made them nearly impossible to control.

Darlington developed cracks in her hull during her maiden voyage, and was never put to commercial use. Durham had one voyage back and forth to Tampico before she too was docked permanently. The end of WWI made a lot of excess tonnage available for very cheap, and there was little use in keeping a heavy, underpowered ship like this in business.

Size is given as 298 x 34 x 22 ft.

Like many other concrete ships, the sisters were destined to become breakwaters - But during tow in June 1922, the rope broke and Darlington was seperated from Durham and the tugboat - She grounded at Matagorda Island (28.23616, -96.60738), and the remains are still visible.

Officially, all records of Durham disappears at this point.

However, the ships were to be towed to Galvestion - and I have discovered images titled "Durham" in the Corpus Christi Public Library, which are quite similar to the youtube clip posted above. I've attached that to this post, along with the only image I've found of one of the ships, which shows them looking like a modern submarine.

https://elibrary.cclibraries.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=468704&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20concrete%20ship

There is a thesis from A & M that supports this theory as well, which i discovered afterwards - https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/174364/ROWLAND-THESIS-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Rowlands theory, which I'm partial to - is that the other half of Durham is used as a fishing jetty near the end of the North Jetty (29.34666, -94.68618). I'd be grateful if anyone have images, videos or any kind of information about the size and form of the wreck on that site.

And if anyone happens to drop by La Retama Central Library in Corpus Christi, where these images are stored, I'd be much obliged for a better report than what can be gathered online.

Best regards, 
Erlend Bonderud.


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## Erlbon (Jan 15, 2020)

After a little bit more searching, I managed to find a better image of her. They must have digitalized more assets since the last time I searched.

https://tsl.access.preservica.com/?s=concrete+tanker


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## JimG (May 2, 2005)

Very cool history! Thanks for posting this!


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## habanerojooz (Dec 4, 2006)

Iâ€™ve never been close to the wreck on the Bolivar beachfront but I have been close to the wreck at Seawolf Park. I know for a fact that the wreck at SWP is a concrete ship. I didnâ€™t know the Bolivar wreck was one too. 


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## glennkoks (Jun 24, 2009)

Erlbon, Thank you for posting this. From the evidence you provided and the video I would have to agree that the wreck off the Bolivar Pocket is the Durham. You can still see the "round" design of the ribs in the drone video and the width of the ship from the Google Earth satellite photo matches very closely.

No other ship I have seen has such a round construction. Almost like a submarine.

Thanks again.


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## Crystalbeachangler (Jun 20, 2014)

This is a really cool thread. I have enjoyed reading through the posted articles. Thanks for the history lesson! I’m definitely going to share.


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## coin-operated (Mar 17, 2011)

*Awesome!*

Thanks so much for this. I have wondered about that wreck for 60 years. The "old salts" used to call it the whaleback. I thought it was just because that is what it resembled. Apparently at least some of them knew what it was: a whaleback tanker.
Thanks again for posting! Tight lines.


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## ACC (Apr 27, 2013)

The shipwreck I was thinking about is the Denbigh

https://nautarch.tamu.edu/PROJECTS/denbigh/HISTORY3.HTM


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## Erlbon (Jan 15, 2020)

ACC said:


> The shipwreck I was thinking about is the Denbigh
> 
> https://nautarch.tamu.edu/PROJECTS/denbigh/HISTORY3.HTM


"Denbigh lies today in shallow water on the north side of Bolivar Roads. The wreck is not far from Fort Travis, a post-Civil War fortification that is now a county park. The wreck is ordinarily underwater, but on rare occasions, when the tide is extremely low, the upper parts of the sidewheels and some machinery are visible above the surface "

From that description, I reckon the Denbigh is registered in the AWIOS as the wreck located at 29.36414, -94.743942


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## 4 Ever-Fish N (Jun 10, 2006)

We used to get out of our boat and walk around on the "concrete ship", fishing for flounder. I don't think you can walk on it any longer?



habanerojooz said:


> Iâ€™ve never been close to the wreck on the Bolivar beachfront but I have been close to the wreck at Seawolf Park. I know for a fact that the wreck at SWP is a concrete ship. I didnâ€™t know the Bolivar wreck was one too.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Drundel (Feb 6, 2006)

Thanks for posting up the info Erlbon.


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## hog_down (Jan 11, 2010)

Knocked it out of the park, Erlbon. Very, very neat Texas history you found, thank you for sharing.


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## riopga (Feb 15, 2017)

Erlbon said:


> "Denbigh lies today in shallow water on the north side of Bolivar Roads. The wreck is not far from Fort Travis, a post-Civil War fortification that is now a county park. The wreck is ordinarily underwater, but on rare occasions, when the tide is extremely low, the upper parts of the sidewheels and some machinery are visible above the surface "
> 
> From that description, I reckon the Denbigh is registered in the AWIOS as the wreck located at 29.36414, -94.743942


My dad and I used to fish this wreck when I was a kid forty years ago. You can't really see it anymore unless it's a super low tide. There is a pole marking it's location. I never knew this wrecks name. More cool info! This wreck is inside the jetty, while the whaleback is outside of it.


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## 2Ws (Jun 28, 2016)

I've fished at the one outside Jetties when the area was refered to as the garbage dump or Bolivar flats or Mexican beach. I've been spooled there, I saw my first huge Ray, have caught almost 2 48qt coolers of trout there about 50 years ago. There were times we couldn't catch anything other than hardheads or sharks, my 2 sons saw/caught there first shark there 35 years ago. The area in front of the Lighthouse WAS called the Pocket back then, my 2 sons caught their first flounder and trout wading with me there, back then there was a bait shop close to the road at the old pocket and was one at the base of the N Jetty. I have seen beds of trucks loaded with trout from the Mexican seiners, at the old Garbage dump leaving hundreds of small rays left to rot. I can't remember where my keys are but I remember this like it was yesterday......hmmm we all used a 5000B.


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

Thank you for posting up the info Erlbon. Most educational. I have waded the wreck of the Darlington many times and I always wondered what it looked like and now I know.

TH


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## ddoucen3855 (6 d ago)

Not sure if this is the same ship my father talked about to me 50 yrs ago but he told me multiple time that he and 2 other guys we're wade fishing around the area and found gold bars... Lots of em. They buried what they could get somewhere on the island. A few years later he was badly pistol whipped and put in the hospital, he told me he was scared for his life because the other 2 guys had been murdered, so he would never tell me where they buried it because it was only trouble. Idk, funny story I guess.


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