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(en) S.S, Faith Concrete Ship Photographs 1918 Oakland U.S.A.

In these photographs, almost abstract, we see the wooden fence that contains within the frame of the first ship of the United States reinforced concrete.
This boat was launched in 1918 and belongs to a series of three (were going to build 20 but only took 3) whose purpose was trade between the U.S. and Europe during WWI.


The photos belong to an album, possibly by the engineer in charge Nicholson named in an envelope inside which includes the album, a photo agency, Service Studio Photo.
These are photos, some almost surreal, abstract other that if we did not know they are building a ship, would seem the invention of a photographer who saw the photo with the eyes of painter.



Está formado por más de 100 fotografías en blanco y negro sobre cartulina blanda. Las fotografías de gran calidad recogen, con fechas, todo el proceso de construcción del barco.
En el interior del álbum había un sobre con la siguiente frase "Nicolson/launching of the Faith March 14, 1918", Nicolson fue un ingeniero de  la San Francisco Shipbuilding Company y su imagen figura en alguna de las fotografías
  • William Leslie Comyn - Shipbuilding Company - S.S. Faith

William L. Comyn fue un distinguido hombre de negocios, armador de los primeros barcos de ferro-hormigón.
Durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, convencido de la necesidad de este tipo de barcos, intentó que diferentes astilleros construyeran barcos en ferro-hormigón.
Al no conseguir que ningún astillero se lo hiciera creo la San Francisco Shipbuilding Company -1917- en Oakland California.
En Enero de 1918 comenzó la construcción  del primer buque denominado Faith diseñado por Alan Macdonald y Victor Poss. Se terminó de construir el 18 de marzo de 1918.
El Faith desplazaba 8000 toneladas y, en el momento de su botadura, era el barco de este tipo de mayor tamaño del mundo.
Los primeros viajes del S.S. Faith tuvieron como destino Honolulu, Balboa, Callao, Valparaíso y Nueva York.
En 1919 Comyn vendió su compañía a French American SS Lines.
Al acabar la Primera Guerra Mundial solo había 12 buques de este tipo en construcción, que fueron dedicados, por la terminación de la guerra al comercio.
En 1921 el SS Faith acabó sus días como rompeolas en la isla de Cuba habiéndose vendido a A. Marx and Sons Co.
Francisco Chronicle
Good Ship “Faith”
Home to start on new adventures
Concrete craft wins high praise from owners and master
Unmindful of war or peace, strikes or storms, the reinforced concrete ship Faith continues on her even way, plying the waves or every ocean. No see too rough, no gale too high for this sturdy twentieth century marvel.
For her maiden voyage the Faith took a taste of the Pacific, going from San Francisco, the city of her birth, to Vancouver, thence back to the Panama Canal. Forty and sixty miles Pacific gales failed to ruffle her temper, much less to strain her in seams. Having thus convinced all doubters or her sea worthiness, the Faith slid up to New York, where she received the homage of innumerable admirers.
Getting back into her element she betook  herself to South American waters and upon her return set sail for England. While there she was minutely examined for lines of care or distress, bur none was found. Her captain said that in his thirty years experience of life on the ocean waves he had not met with any boat to equal to this one. And her owners said:  It is needless for us to say that the boat took not an inch of water, as she is one of the stanchest sea boats afloat.
Now the Faith has returned home in quest of new glories. It is said she will soon be on her way to a new and distant continent.
Wherever she goes the Faith “delivers the goods”

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