(en) Vintage photography concrete ship. Shipbuilding.S.S. Faith, Oackland 1918.

In this photo pose, perched on scaffolding, workers who, between December 1917 and April 1918 worked at the first ship built of reinforced concrete (ferro concrete) of USA.
The photograph of workers at work in their factories "men at work" it began to spread in the eye of the photographers in the early twentieth century and allows us to have a firsthand source material of the condition of work on those days.
This photo belongs to an album, produced by "Studio Photo Service 123 Market S".
The album belonged to one of the engineers of the ship called Nicolson.
The vessel, S.S. Faith was commissioned by President Wilson to the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company owned by Leslie Comyn.

Links

• • Concrete ship Wikipedia
  • S.S. Faith Wikipedia
  • Ver album completo de la construcción
  •  
  • William Leslie Comyn - San Francisco Shipbuilding company - S.S. Faith
    William L. Comyn was an important business man, shipowner of the first concrete ship.
    During World War I, he tried to convince several shipping companies to built this kind of ships, but he didn't succeed.
    As a result, he created the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company -1917- in Oakland California.
    In January 1918, he began to built the first concrete ship, named Faith, and designed by Alan Macdonald and Victor Poss.
    SS Faith was able to pull 8000 tons, so it was the biggest ship of its time in the world when launched.
    The first journeys headed to Honolulu, Balboa, Callao, Valparaíso y Nueva York.
    In 1919 Comyn sold his company to French American SS Lines.
    After the World War I, 12 concrete ships were build and used for commerce as soon as the World War ended.
    In 1921, the SS Faith ended his life as a breakwater in Cuba.
    Nowadays these ships are not constructed any longer, they are part of the history of Navigation as cheaper boats became more popular.
     
    Size:
    
  • 97,54 x 13,56 x 6,86 m
    
  • 2 triple expansion steam machines. 1700 hp. 10 knots.
    
   
  See also
  
• Leslie Comyn -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leslie_Comyn
  
• Web about concrete ship - http://www.concreteships.org/history/
  
• New York Times news about its launching - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F03E3DF103BEE3ABC4D52DFB5668383609EDE
  
• More articles about the SS Faith in the New York Times
  
  • March 15th, 1918
    
  • April 4th, 1918
    
  • May 5th, 1918
    
  • June 11th, 1918
    
  • November 22nd, 1918
    
• History of concrete ships
  
  • http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/95spring/shipbuilding.htm
    
  • http://www.mareud.com/Ferro-Concrete/fc_historygbr.htm
    
• Information of the San Francisco Shipping Company - http://www.mareud.com/Ferro-Concrete/san_francisco_shipbuilding_company.html
  
•  This album consists of more than 100 vintage photographies mounted on a black cardboard. These high quality photos have the date on it, showing the chronologie of the construction of the concrete ship.
  When bought, the album had an envelope with this sentece: "Nicolson/launching of the Faith March 14, 1918". The seller indicated (and I couldn't check the information yet), Nicolson was an engineer of the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company and his image is in some of the photos.
  
  Pasted on the front cover, there were two pieces of a newspaper:
  
  
• One with an image and the following text:
  

Carrying a General Cargo the concrete ship Faith. Passing through Gaillard  Cut Panama Canal en route from New York to Valparaiso on the Stone Hull has been conclusively demonstrated by this vessel, which has Weathered heavy storms an travelled thousands of miles during the past year.

 

• Another text without image:
  

N.Y. Gets sugar in Concrete ship Faith
By associated press
New York Nov. 21.
The American steamship Faith, the largest concrete ship in the world, launched March 14 last on the Pacific Coast as an experiment in this metod of construction, arrived here today with a cargo of sugar from Cuba

 

• On the back cover, there was another label:
  

The ideal
To duplicate order
Nº 7633 B
Made by
The  J.L. Hanson Co.
Chicago

• Concrete Shipbuilding in San Diego, 1918-1920

  Chronology
  

  1849 Concrete skiff made in France.
  1859 Concrete barges launched in Netherlands for canal use.
  1909 Freighter barge put in service from Frankfort-am-Main.
  7 Sep 1916 Congress creates U. S. Shipping Board.
  
  Feb 1917 Staff assembled for concrete ship design.
  20 Apr 1917 USSB contracts for first concrete ship.
  2 Aug 1917 Namsenfjord, first sea-going freighter, launched.
  1 Jan 1918 Concrete Ship Section established. 
  
  18 Mar 1918 Faith launched.
  
  
  "Faith" left San  Francisco 22 May on her first voyage commercial with a
   cargo of rock salt and  copper ore assigned to Seattle. She traded in 
  the eastern Pacific, Caribbean,  and North Atlantic until December 1921.15
  While not a standard prototype Faith nonetheless set parameters
   used  to delineate 'stone' ships that followed. She was built on 
  longitudinal framing  joining transverse frames set 16 feet apart. 
  Lugged bars woven in a diagonal  mesh were encased in concrete, the skin
   being part of the framing. Her bottom  was 4 1/2" thick, sides 4", and 
  shelter decks 3 to 3 1/2". There were 7  watertight bulkheads. Her 
  principal measurements were 320 x 44.5 x 27.7.  Bethlehem Shipbuilding 
  Company of Alameda provided a 1750 hp triple expansion  engine that was 
  24" x 39" x 65" and 42". Gross tonnage was 3,427 and net 2,071;  
  displacement was 4,500 tons.34

   

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