Navy Department World War I Concrete Barges - Rondout Creek

itle: Concrete Barge # 442 Description: (U.S. Navy Barge, 1918) In port, probably at the time she was inspected by the Third Naval District on 4 December 1918. Built by Louis L. Brown at Verplank, New York, this barge was built for the Navy and became Coal Barge # 442, later being renamed YC-442. She was stricken from the Navy Register on 11 September 1923, after having been lost by sinking. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Hiding away in Rondout Creek, New York at 41.91245, -73.98639 is the last known surviving example of a World War I Navy ‘Oil & Coal’ Barge. 

It is less than a kilometer up the Rondout Creek from the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
Based on a lot of ‘Googling’, it seems probable this is the first time that the provenance and history of this particular relic of concrete shipbuilding in the United States during the World War I era has been recognized. [Editor's Note: The concrete barge is featured on the Solaris tours of Rondout Creek.]
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The hulk is, in fact, the initial prototype of a ‘Navy Department Coal Barge’, concrete barges that were commissioned by the Navy Department : Bureau of Construction and Repair. This was the department of the U.S. Navy that was responsible for supervising the design, construction, conversion, procurement, maintenance, and repair of ships and other craft for the Navy.

​Launched on 1st June 1918, the ‘Directory of Vessels chartered by Naval Districts’ lists ‘Concrete Barge No.1’, Registration number 2531, as being chartered by the Navy from Louis L. Brown at $360 per month from 11th September 1918. 
In Spring 1918, the Navy Department had commissioned twelve, 500 Gross Registered Tonnage barges from three separate constructors in Spring 1918 to be used in New York harbour. 

Navy Barge #516 which was the first prototype. It is believed that the barge at Rondout Creek is this particular barge based on the subtly different lines of her bow. Possibly photographed when inspected by the Third Naval District on 5 April 1918. She was assigned registry ID # 2531. This barge, chartered by the Navy in September 1918, was returned to her owner on 28 October 1919. While in Navy service she was known as Coal Barge # 516. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Read the Full Article Here

Concrete barge on Rondout Creek. Image by Will Van Dorp https://tugster.wordpress.com/tag/rondout-creek/

Authors

Richard Lewis and Erlend Bonderud have been researching concrete ships worldwide for many years. They have identified over 1800 concrete ships, spanning the globe, of which many survive.
 
Richard lives in Carlingford, Co. Louth, Republic of Ireland. His interest in concrete ships was first triggered by 'Cretegaff', the last floating survivor of the British World War I 'Crete Fleet', that lies in Carlingford Marina. In addition to building and maintaining the www.cretefleet.com website, he has published a number of on-line articles aimed at generating interest and telling the facts about concrete ships are precursors to the publication of a series of books for which the manuscripts are written.
 
Erlend lives near Oslo, Norway.. For over a decade, he has been researching 'Concrete Shipbuilding 1848 - 1972' , concrete ships built all around the World. Speaking Norwegian, French, German and English, Erlend collaborates multiple times each day with Richard to uncover hidden secrets of concrete ships in the ship registries, archives and newspapers of the World. Erlend is busy writing a number of books, including 'The Toxic Kraken', an investigation of the post war dumping of chemical weapons. When not researching and writing about concrete ships, both Richard & Erlend have careers in the Data Management and Business Intelligence space. You can read about all the U.S. World War I concrete ships on the website www.thecretefleet.com

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