205 feet long, 32 feet wide, and nearly 20 feet high; from 1929 to 
about 1949 she operated between Liverpool, England and Lagos, Nigeria, 
after which period, the ship was stripped of all machinery and used as 
a floating warehouse. In 1969 the Armistice was scuttled at sea because 
her hull was badly spalled (Morgan, 1970). 
From 1914 to 1918 a small number of concrete ocean-going ships and 
barges were produced in France; each approximated 300 gross tons in 
size. During the years 1919 through 1921, the French built 15 concrete 
hulls of which 1l were designed by E. Freyssinet. The unit weight of 
concrete in these 180 foot long vessels was 140 pcf. Though heavier 
than steel ships, Freyssinet's ships utilized numerous strands of small 
diameter reinforcing steel so that the ratio of total deadweight to full 
load displacement was 0.61, which approached that of a steel ship of 
equal size. 
The first large reinforced concrete ocean-going ship produced in 
America was the Faith which was constructed at Redwood City, California 
in 1917. This vessel of 3,427 gross tons, hull thickness varying from 
4 to 4-1/2 inches,was in operation from 1918 to 1921. Though the U. S. 
Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation program called for construct- 
ing 38 concrete ships for World War I use, only 12 were built. Lengths 
ranged from 260 to 434 feet; beams, from 43 to 54 feet; and depths, from 
26 to 36 feet. The hulls of these 12 ships (six of them were tankers) 
incorporated steel reinforcing bars ranging from 3/8 to 1-3/8 inch 
diameter. Hull thicknesses ranged from 4 to 6 inches. The average 
compressive strength of the concrete was 4,000 psi at age 28 days. 
The following tabulation, prepared for the U. S. Shipping Board; shows 
the tonnage comparison among three types of hull: 
Concrete Wood Steel 
Hull 2,500 Bs S00) 1,160 
Fittings and Equipment 191 OH 180 
Propelling Machinery 206 206 200 
Margin 75 80 60 
2 DIP DsTUT 1,600 
Reserve feed 80 80 80 
Ordnance 3) DS) 23 
Fuel 300 300 300 
Stores 40 40 40 
Cargo 2,760 2,180 3,057 
Total dead weight 35203 2AO2S 3,500 
Full load displacement Op 75) 5,400 5, 100 
Ratio of total dead weight 
to full load displacement W552 0.48 0.69 
U. S. Senate Documents, 20 (239), Washington, (1918). 
