# sunken barge off north jetty



## the crusty barnacle (Jun 25, 2010)

Does anyone know the history of the sunken barge off the north jetty. I know its been there a while. Fishing seems to be pretty good there. Just a bit hairy getting close to it with a boat.


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## bobber (May 12, 2005)

Historically, there has been countless anchors lost at this location.


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## Johnboat (Jun 7, 2004)

*Which jetty?*

I may have missed it but did you state which channel/pass/jetty you are referring to?


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## Bozo (Jun 16, 2004)

Since his location is San Leon, then you can deduct that he's talking about Galveston Bay/Channel. Most of the time when people leave off specific information it is because they don't think about needing to since they feel at home. 

At least that's a good rule of thumb you can use here and just about all aspects of life.


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## Reel-tor (May 21, 2004)

I'm 67 years old and I remember fishing near that sunken barge when I was a teenager. That's how long its been there! Galveston North Jetty a little over half way between boat cut and end of jetty. I have no info on the barge itself.

I believe we may have contributed an anchor or 2!


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I think if I remember right it was placed there in either 1941 or 1942.
It was the barge "The Galveston". LAST SURVEYED IN 1947 AND AT THAT TIME HAD A MIN. DEPTH OF 19 FT. THE WRECK EXTENDS 9-10 FT ABOVE THE BOTTOM.


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## fishing-guru (Feb 2, 2011)

Someone told me that during ww2 they wanted to build ship hulls for barges out of something other than metal, so they tried building them out of concrete and it didn't work that well. Since they didn't work that good they sunk the ship in the bay as an artificial reef.


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

fishing-guru said:


> Someone told me that during ww2 they wanted to build ship hulls for barges out of something other than metal, so they tried building them out of concrete and it didn't work that well. Since they didn't work that good they sunk the ship in the bay as an artificial reef.


That would be the "USS Selma" that you can see from the ferry. There was another one (concrete ship)that was sunk off the end of the jetty.


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

fishing-guru said:


> Someone told me that during ww2 they wanted to build ship hulls for barges out of something other than metal, so they tried building them out of concrete and it didn't work that well. Since they didn't work that good they sunk the ship in the bay as an artificial reef.


He's not talking about the concrete ship by Sea wolf.


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## mastercylinder60 (Dec 18, 2005)

Reel-tor said:


> I'm 67 years old and I remember fishing near that sunken barge when I was a teenager. That's how long its been there! _*Galveston North Jetty a little over half way between boat cut and end of jetty*_. I have no info on the barge itself.
> 
> I believe we may have contributed an anchor or 2!


the one i'm familiar with is much closer to the end of the north jetty - like maybe a couple of hundred yards at most, and i seem to recall it was a wwll era thing, but i don't know its history.

i've caught a lot of fish out there at night, though. we used to toss a grapple on the barge at night, drop in a green light or two, and then proceed to net up a passel of glass minners and pick up schooly trout off of the bottom all night long.


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## Johnny9 (Sep 7, 2005)

Inside the Jetty or Outside?


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

fishinguy said:


> He's not talking about the concrete ship by Sea wolf.


That is the only concrete ship that I know of in the bay area.



juan said:


> Inside the Jetty or Outside?


Outside of the jetty


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## BlueWaveCapt (Jan 8, 2007)

It's got 1 of my anchors and I can't imagine how many hooks...haha!!


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I've lost a few out there too. One time I pulled up 5 at one time. So I had plenty for a while. I lost almost all of them right back in the same spot.


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## mastercylinder60 (Dec 18, 2005)

juan said:


> Inside the Jetty or Outside?


outside - north side.


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## txranger (Jun 23, 2005)

Is this it? It's outside the north jetty, near the end...


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## DoublePlay (Jul 9, 2009)

I left an anchor there about a month ago myself. You can stand on top of the flat deck of the barge in a few inches of water most days. That pic doesn't look like the sunken barge that is there to me. I have wondered about this history of it myself, sure would like to know the story of how it ended up there.
DP


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

Never seen it from that angle. Might be it.


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## CAPSIZED (Aug 10, 2004)

thats it. Ive spent many hours on that barge.



txranger said:


> Is this it? It's outside the north jetty, near the end...


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

That's the one. It'll hold some fish at times. It is on the outside of the north jetty pretty close to the end.


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## Swampus (Sep 1, 2005)

Fished off it alot...................lost alot of tackle too.................Green lighted there at night w/Jabox few years back--felt like I was in a UFO!


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## Johnny V E (May 26, 2010)

I think fishing guru got it right. They were called "Liberty Ships" is what my dad told me when I was a kid. Concrete hulled vessels built during WWII because steel was in such short supply. Didn't work too well and they were sunk as fishing reefs.


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

The SS Selma, a World War I reinforced concrete tanker scuttled decades ago off the coast of Galveston, Texas, and visible above the water line, is no longer just a local curiosity. Since 1992, besides recognition with a Texas Historical Commission's Official Texas Historical Marker, she has been designated as a State Archeological Landmark by the Texas Antiquities Committee, as the Official Flagship of the Texas "Army", and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 
In addition , the SS Selma rests in a significant site in Galveston Bay, the bay near the "marine battleground" for part of the Civil War's Battle of Galveston in 1863.
None of these honors in the past few years would have occurred had it not been for the tireless efforts of a former city editor of the Galveston Daily News and retired copy editor of the Houston Chronicle, A. Pat Daniels, of Houston, who purchased the Selma in 1992. He has exhibited an uncommon love for the old girl, so much that he throws a birthday party for her every year with much fanfare, inviting many of the local Texas luminaries and a few outsiders, myself included. 
*The War Effort* 
The Selma, a 7500 ton reinforced concrete tanker built in Mobile, Alabama, was launched on June 28, 1919. She was one of several concrete ships conceived and designed during World War 1. Construction was not completed until the war ended. She had a length 420 ft., a beam of 54 ft. and a draft with full cargo of 26 ft.. Her loaded displacement was 13,000 tons. This vessel marked the first use of shale aggregate expanded in rotary kilns for lightweight structural concrete.
Steel was in short supply because of the war efforts and concrete was then proposed as a viable alternative material for use in ship building. Feasibility studies by marine engineers indicated that a reinforced concrete ship would be practical if the concrete had a compressive strength of 5000 psi and weighted no more than 110 lb\ft.. As a matter of fact, the Selma's average compressive strength at 28 days was 5591 psi and the average modulus of elasticity was 3,306,000 psi, well beyond all expectations.
The hull of reinforced expanded shale lightweight concrete was 5" thick at the bottom, tapering to 4" on the sides. It required 2600 yds. of concrete reinforced with 1500 tons of smooth reinforcing bars. Expanded shale aggregaate was supplied in two graduations, fine and coarse. Diatomaceous earth was also used in the concrete.
To obtain proper placement of concrete in the thin hull and throughout the heavy mats of reinforcing steel the concrete mixture was quite fluid. Internal vibration was also used to improve consolidation.
Engineers in charge of the project found it difficult to control the fluid and produce a uniform batches. One of the engineers, Herbert A. Davis, developed an apparatus for controlling consistency. He used a 6 x 12 in. (150 x 300 mm) cylinder mold and an arrangement of fixed vertical tracks with which to lift the mold. The cylinder was filled with concrete and then lifted. This removed the cylinder from the concrete, allowing it to sag. The distance of the sag was measured and reported as the "consistency drop" in inches. This was the first successful effort to control the consistency of concrete in the field by comparing one batch with the next. This testing and others of a similar nature eventually led to the modern slump cone test. (ASTM C 143)
*Postwar life of the Selma* 
The Selma served several ports in the Gulf of Mexico quite successfully. Unfortunately she ran aground on the South jetty at Tampico, Mexico on May 11, 1920, creating a sizeable crack about 60 ft. long in her hull. She was towed into Galveston for repairs. Although the damage was repairable, the dry-dock crew lacked the knowledge and had no experience repairing a hull of such material. With no guarantee of proper restoration, the U.S. Government's Emergency Fleet Corporation decided not to gamble.
A channel 1,500 ft. long and 25 ft. deep was dug to a point just off Galveston near Pelican Island's eastern shoreline. After being stripped of all valuable equipment, on March 9, 1922 she was towed out to her final berth, and laid to rest. This left the hull partly submerged, although awash when seas were rough.
The Selma has over the years been object of many failed plans to convert her for use as a fishing pier, pleasure resort and oyster farm. Long a source of curiosity and local legend, she remains important to concrete and academic experts as an object of study of her construction and durability following decades of exposure to marine conditions.
The Selma is still quite visible today from the historic marker on Pelican Island and has become an interesting artifact to be viewed by the locals and visitor tourists alike. Although she will never sail again, she has been proudly resurrected by Daniels and other proud Texans who believe she lives on in spirit.


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## roundman (May 21, 2004)

when i was a kid i remember seeing a sunken one off the inside much closer towards the beach between the beach and boat cut, i remember seeing a stack sticking up in the water, maybe i was dreaming


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## roundman (May 21, 2004)

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/projects/denbigh/Panorama.htm , http://nautarch.tamu.edu/projects/denbigh/TODAY.HTM , http://www.thc.state.tx.us/archeology/aapdfs/CAT_Apr_05.pdf


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## Mont (Nov 17, 1998)

roundman said:


> when i was a kid i remember seeing a sunken one off the inside much closer towards the beach between the beach and boat cut, i remember seeing a stack sticking up in the water, maybe i was dreaming


there's a whole bunch of wrecks in that area


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## txranger (Jun 23, 2005)

Here's one off Bolivar about 1/2 mile from the beach.


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## the crusty barnacle (Jun 25, 2010)

*Thats the one*



txranger said:


> Is this it? It's outside the north jetty, near the end...












That thing needs a solar light near it. We almost had an "iceberg right ahead moment" on late friday/early saturday morning.


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## the crusty barnacle (Jun 25, 2010)

*Selma*



Bobby said:


> The SS Selma, a World War I reinforced concrete tanker scuttled decades ago off the coast of Galveston, Texas, and visible above the water line, is no longer just a local curiosity. Since 1992, besides recognition with a Texas Historical Commission's Official Texas Historical Marker, she has been designated as a State Archeological Landmark by the Texas Antiquities Committee, as the Official Flagship of the Texas "Army", and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
> In addition , the SS Selma rests in a significant site in Galveston Bay, the bay near the "marine battleground" for part of the Civil War's Battle of Galveston in 1863.
> None of these honors in the past few years would have occurred had it not been for the tireless efforts of a former city editor of the Galveston Daily News and retired copy editor of the Houston Chronicle, A. Pat Daniels, of Houston, who purchased the Selma in 1992. He has exhibited an uncommon love for the old girl, so much that he throws a birthday party for her every year with much fanfare, inviting many of the local Texas luminaries and a few outsiders, myself included.
> *The War Effort*
> ...


Ive also read somewhere that the feds would dispose of confiscated booze during the prohibition by breaking the bottles in the holds below deck.


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## crashboatbasin (May 21, 2009)

its a very tricky spot to fish


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

Liberty Ships were made of steel, welded together in sections with a life expectancy of about 5 years.

TH


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## CAPSIZED (Aug 10, 2004)

thats a great pic Crash.... Do you remember this day?


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## ralph7 (Apr 28, 2009)

crashboatbasin said:


> its a very tricky spot to fish


you raised the level of difficulty w/one hand!


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## crashboatbasin (May 21, 2009)

yep!!!


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