The SS Selma: Galveston's WWI-era shipwreck.
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- The SS Selma is an experimental concrete ship that was run aground in Galveston Bay in 1922.
Other Videos of the Selma:
• Abandoned SS Selma Shi...
• Video
• SS Selma - Galveston, ...
Sources / Further Reading:
en.wikipedia.o...)
www.crystalbea...
www.atlasobscu...
I grew up in that area and fondly remember going out on our grandpa's boat, crusing all around the bays, inlets, bayous and Gulf. We used to fish near that shipwreck and redfish reef and even swim in the intracoastal water way. I've been living up in the hill country now for almost 20 years, but I'd give anything to experience living down South again: evening seabreezes with the smell of salt air and how it would feel after swimming all day at the beach, then going home to the mainland, taking a much needed shower and being sunburnt, but tan & tired (hungry too) afterwards! You could still feel the waves even after getting home. Yeah, the hill country might be more scenic & all, but it's filled with smug Californians, unbearable crowds & traffic, ugly trac housing everywhere you look and worse yet, we're running out of water! We get no rain up here hardly at all. I never thought I'd miss my little hick town along the coast where we used to back our pickups in the fields and party, then Saturday mornings going to the beach, or venturning into Houston to shop or go to the seafood markets in Seabrook! I used to gripe so much about the hurricanes & mosquitoes down there and wanted to leave so bad, but now, I'd give anything to go back home!!
I love this
In the 1970s I was a tween and sometimes I would get sea sick on the family boat . So they would drop me off on the Selma and so my adventures would begin . There was more to the Selma back then than I'm seeing now
A hermit lived on it back in the late 50s and 60s. We would wave to him from the ferry as we passed by the Selma.
Back in the 60s there was an Old Salt that had a bait stand on the Selma. I can't remember if he was told to leave or if his prices for live bait shrimp was to high. Didn't last very long. He was also mostly drunk all the time and had a bad attitude....lol.
As a ten year old child, I saw this concrete ship in 1965 in Galveston Bay. I was visiting my Great Aunt and Uncle from League City, Texas with my parents in my charge. There was a lot more detail to the ship at that time, and I can still recall how strange it was to think of a cement ship being able to float. I have some old b&w photos from 1965 that my long deceased parents took of this ship. On the drive back to Fort Wayne, Indiana in a champagne colored 1964 Ford Galaxie, we followed the horrific devastation of the Palm Sunday Tornados of April of 1965. Seeing that, in the eyes of a ten year old boy, it seemed that the world was coming to an end. I shall never forget that Spring Vacation of 1965, as it is engraved in my memory forever.
I remember my dad and I went fishing around the Selma back in 67 all the stuff on the Stern was gone and the smokestack was gone but the bridge was still there in the center of the vessel.
Hey Scott, I’m really enjoying your videos. You might look into doing one on Hitchcock Naval Air Station which was near Galveston. It was built during WWII as a blimp base to protect the coast from German submarines. I can recall driving by it in the late 1970s when the hangar structure was still intact, since mostly demolished. After the war ended it was purchased by independent oilman John Mecom Sr. Reportedly it was used to store artwork and artifacts taken from the European continent, many of which ended up in the Warwick hotel in Houston which was also owned in the 1960s-1980s by Mecom. I had an opportunity in 1987 to walk the Warwick from top to bottom when a group I was with was considering buying the hotel, and a long time employee of the hotel confirmed much of the artwork in the hotel had come from Europe and was stored in the blimp hangar before finding a home in the hotel.
Hi John, I knew about this place just as the "blimp base", didn't know the rest of this!
as a small child in the 1990s I remember going on fishing trips with my Dad out there and to Sea Wolf Park also and being told about this and seeing it. And I was always mesmerized by the thought or concept of it because by that time as a child I, relatively speaking, fully understood the concept of concrete (because, roads...) yet could not for the life of me fathom how they could have ever made it into a boat that floats and goes places and does things whatever those may have been.... (war stuff in my childhood mind, I used to believe that it had been a WWI gun boat, who knows how I came to that conclusion). Have always wondered about its actual history. Very cool!
I have been on this old ship many times back in the nineteen fiftys and sixtys.Caught many good trout and other fish.There was a sign at one time that said keep off because it was claimed by someone as a finders keepers prize.??? some kind of sea salvage???I never did see the guy though.Back in the thirtys a man named Gus Pangerrakers caught the worlds record giant sea bass off it.
Not too far from Santa Cruz in California, at Aptos to be precise, there is the SS Palo Alto, also resting near the beach. I actually walked on it back in late 80s, when it was still open to the public. A friend of mine used to take sound recordings from inside, dropping the microphone from the top. It has been years now that it is no longer safe to go on it, as it is decaying badly - I think it is broken in three major pieces now. Still there is a walkway to the ship.
This is cool, looking it up now
Great content! I grew up in Houston and never knew this existed.
I remember "the concrete boat" from my childhood, but I remember it covered with vegetation. When it was pointed out to me all I could see were trees so it looked more like an island. Guess they were removed to see better how the cement was surviving/
Very good work! Subscribed. Keep it up.
Dude these videos are great. Every city should have a guy like you!
Cool video and good footage. I live halfway between Htown and Gtown and I work out in the Gulf and I fish out in the Gulf. I go out thru the Ship Channel as well as the Port of Texas City and The Galveston Port. Never even heard of this concrete ship. Heard about it today in a History video. No clue it was in my backyard. Good video man!
Very cool, once more, Scott!
I was there today and thought it was a sunken ship. Thank you for this very informative video.
If I remember correctly there is at least one concrete ship off the New Jersey coast, which I saw back in the '90s. In my mind all shipwrecks are spooky......
You can wade out to it on a low tide.
It's so bizarre that people can't fathom a ship made of concrete floating, yet a ship made out of solid steel floating makes perfect sense to them. I've lived in Galveston county my whole life and have heard people being amazed by this fact for my whole life.
I've always been more amazed that wood floats, so they made ships out of it, but wooden ships sink.
Ship are very cool. I can't even imagine a concrete one sailing.
I only read it in a book recently. Kinda surprising.
See Austin we got some stuff too on the coast as well......
I was a tankermen for HMS and we probably passed that thing a hundred times over the years.
also there are some fantastic old timer anecdotes in this comment section. I love those.
i live in brazoria and we go to galveston all the time and ride the ferry to the archipelago
Your narration is 👍
I went fishing there
I got to go on the ship 3 times
How do you get to do this? Do you just take a small boat over or do you need sone special kind of permission/a hired guide?
she was actually scuttled after hitting a jetty on the coast of Mexico. The yard workers in Galveston couldn't fix her so they dropped her in a 1500 ft trench
Subscribed!
I've been on this ship
Hello there new here. Thank you for history.. Live here but not from here. Just a waste
The Navy should torpex that eyesore