The McCloskey Ships

Off the pier at Kiptopeke State Park is a jagged, eerie looking breakwater, the decaying hulls of 9 concrete ships that were sunk in the shallows in 1948.  We got a mini history lesson.  The WWII war effort redirected steel supplies, leaving merchant ship builders to seek alternative materials.  Their solution?  Concrete.  24 ships were launched to move cargo and serve as training ships.  After just 4 short years they found their second life as breakwaters and artificial reefs.  That’s re-purposing on a grand scale.

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