Report - Shipwrecks on Hoo Island, RIver Medway - May 2021

[Lndnpdd]

I had a good scan round on Google Earth and found a few possibilities. Is it in ‘Lake Lothing’ ?

Yes it is on lake lothing, I was padlding around to look at some of the wrecks there (which will form another post when I get aorund to writing it) and saw the concrete barge - based on the bow cleat it looks like a WW2 one - I have tried to do a google maps / street view link below to the location:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

 

[Thecretefleet]

Yes it is on lake lothing, I was padlding around to look at some of the wrecks there (which will form another post when I get aorund to writing it) and saw the concrete barge - based on the bow cleat it looks like a WW2 one - I have tried to do a google maps / street view link below to the location:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

No question about it in my mind. It is a FCB of the type generally known as a PB200 ,which were fuel barges, 200 tons. I can see from Google Earth that is has a closed deck (the barges didn't of course...). Great find !!

PB200

(Petrol Barge, 200 tons)

Stem-headed types with square strakes (and a lid on them - and many have been rebuilt as houseboats).

Possibly 181 produced, likely Barrow. There is a big collection of them at Rainham Marshes

200 were probably commissioned in 1940. They were engineered by Mouchel, and constructed by Wates, Barrow-in-Furness

Richard
The Crete Fleet

 

[Exploring With Pride 🌈]

Great report i recently went inside the fishing boats cab after visiting many times and thinking (no way) that tower is gona topple over if i try and go it but I finally decided to risk it

 

[Lndnpdd]

No question about it in my mind. It is a FCB of the type generally known as a PB200 ,which were fuel barges, 200 tons. I can see from Google Earth that is has a closed deck (the barges didn't of course...). Great find !!

PB200

(Petrol Barge, 200 tons)

Stem-headed types with square strakes (and a lid on them - and many have been rebuilt as houseboats).

Possibly 181 produced, likely Barrow. There is a big collection of them at Rainham Marshes

200 were probably commissioned in 1940. They were engineered by Mouchel, and constructed by Wates, Barrow-in-Furness

Richard
The Crete Fleet

You clearly know your stuff with these conrete barges! I find them fascinating. Next time I am in Lowestoft I will take a photo of the floating one, I dont think there can be many that are still functional!

 

[Lndnpdd]

Great report i recently went inside the fishing boats cab after visiting many times and thinking (no way) that tower is gona topple over if i try and go it but I finally decided to risk it

You are brave! what was it like inside? I am doing that paddle agian in a few weeks so I might try to be as brave as you were!

 

[Thecretefleet]

You clearly know your stuff with these conrete barges! I find them fascinating. Next time I am in Lowestoft I will take a photo of the floating one, I dont think there can be many that are still functional!

I did a bit more research. This vessel is in fact on the National Historic Ships UK list Name Concretian | National Historic Ships and known as 'Concretian' (must be a pet name !). History as follows :-

History (paste from Name Concretian | National Historic Ships)​

Built circa 1944 for the Ministry of War Transport, CONCRETIAN is a ferro concrete barge (FCB) without independent power and a wartime survivor from the D Day landings; she was built to take fresh water to Normandy following the D-Day Landings. Although without independent power, they did have tiller steering. Her number is unknown.

Found adrift off Lowestoft in 1949, she was bought from the Admiralty Marshall by Fletcher’s yard where she was sunk to form a ‘T’ head to their jetty used for the maintenance of RNLI lifeboats.

When the yard changed hands in c.2005, she was given to the Excelsior Trust who repaired her and gave her a new role as a mooring barge, store and workshop for their historical Lowestoft smack, EXCELSIOR LT472.

The FCBs were built to save steel during the Second World War. Unlike the Shoreham Creteships of WW1, they were built of a combination of thin pre-cast reinforced concrete panels joined by in situ ‘beams’ forming a monolithic structure that could be rapidly mass-produced.

Conventional concrete construction in a marine environment demands 75mm of cover over the mild steel reinforcement, giving a minimum thickness of more than 150mm. Here the panels are only 50mm thick yet there are no signs of deterioration. It transpires that the cement used was extra fine and so waterproof that the reinforcing bars are still blue as originally milled. Special spring clips were developed to save labour in tying the reinforcing bars together. These remain in perfect condition and were reused for the repairs.

The water carrying barges were ‘one-use’ vessels that only required 20% of the steel of conventional steel barges, yet this one is still afloat having been sunk more than afloat, and only having been slipped once for repairs, and having never had any maintenance.

Comment from me :-

The write up refers to the Shoreham Creteships of WW1 which I have fully researched (there were 6 tugs, 6 barges and my pet tug in Carlingford, Cretegaff, is one of them). Those particular WW1 concrete ships were monolithic construction (ie build all the shuttering, tie all the steel work, pour the concrete into a mould) but actually during the WW1 building programme came innovation in the form of the Ritchie Unit System

The ‘Ritchie Unit System’ was an innovative and patented methodology with a very different approach from the ‘Monolithic’ method.

H. C. Ritchie was an innovator in the concrete building methodologies. On 7th August 1918, Ritchie successfully applied for a Patent in the USA – US Patent 1375179A – which was granted on 19th April 1921. Two patents were also applied for in the UK and first is generally known as ‘The Ritchie Unit System’ - a methodology subsequently employed by a number of ‘The Crete Fleet’ builders. The second related to pre-erected steelwork core to the concrete.

The ‘Ritchie Unit System’ was patented by Ritchie & Black of Liverpooll and it used pre-cast sections which were then assembled on the slipway to form the ship’s hull. The key to the ‘Ritchie Unit System’ was in the design and in the methodology. The ships were actually designed so as to keep the number of moulds required to a minimum by standardising as many ‘panels’ as possible, particularly in the ‘mid-ships’. The ‘Ritchie Unit System’ was applied best to barges that were more ‘uniform’ in their construction without the intricate designs required in a ‘Crete Tug’.


So put simply, the FCBs of World War 2, the Mulberry Harbours, bridges, buildings etc etc were built from pre-cast sections and it was Harry Ritchie that pioneered that with his concrete barges built initially at Fiddler's Ferry on the Mersey...

To be fair, I have 360 pages of research, 160,000 words just on the topic of the WW1 concrete ships and can put almost anyone to sleep in no time on the topic

 

[scotty markfour]

a nice little sailing adventure , luv it !

 

[Exploring With Pride 🌈]

You are brave! what was it like inside? I am doing that paddle agian in a few weeks so I might try to be as brave as you were!

Was ok not much in im honestly surprised that tower is standing with the state of the hull

 

[Exploring With Pride 🌈]

Have u gone out to the old ww1 sub?

 

[Lndnpdd]

Have u gone out to the old ww1 sub?

THe two little ones yes but not the big on sucessfully yet - Have attempted it once but the wind and tide combined were too strong for my paddling skills that day, I want to though as is looks amazing. I want to do the Kingsnorth jetty as well soon which is close to the u-boat

 

[Exploring With Pride 🌈]

THe two little ones yes but not the big on sucessfully yet - Have attempted it once but the wind and tide combined were too strong for my paddling skills that day, I want to though as is looks amazing. I want to do the Kingsnorth jetty as well soon which is close to the u-boat

Ive done the sub we used a dinghy with a small outboard and ive done the jetties many times and have even hung some pride flags from the tops of the cranes lol

 

[Thecretefleet]

Very Interesting report on Hoo Island and the wrecks protecting the shore. I am going to say that whilst there are definitely a number of concrete barges there, many of the ones to the east look like steel lighters to me. I reckon there are two tank barges to the south, then the first two on the eastern side are open FCBs, then there are a couple of 'pontoons' that may be concrete but are not FCBS, then a line of 4 steel lighters and then a FCB tank barge at the most northerly point. This write-up is worthy of some edits/builds ' . . . with over 470 being constructed by a building company (rather than shipbuilders) in Barrow-in-Furness' . The number is about right although I have 501 in my list. They were built in Barrow-in-Furness by Wates, but also in Queensferry, North Wales and Hull, and most significantly, in London at West India Docks. All the tank barges were built in London as well as swim-headed open barges. This type of barge was used in the Normandy invasion of June 1944 to transport fuel to other ships engaged in the invasion and may have formed parts of the Mulberry harbours and pontoon bridges that helped move men and equipment to the shore. In my view, this is a myth. Virtually all the tank barges were built in 1944/45 and they were for river and harbour use. They categorically were not part of Mulberry which was Spud Pierheads + intermediate pontoons, Whale bridges spans, Beetles, Phoenix Caissons (+ Bombardons and Gooseberry block ships). I have evidence that FCBs were tested at Garlieston with all other Mulberry components but in common with a number of prototypes, weren't used (eg Hippo, Swiss Roll) as they did not perform well. The Petrol Barges were tested on Exercise Jantzen in South Wales and it was a disaster - they came on to the beaches and gushed petrol everywhere out of cracks and holes. I am about to read your post of Fort Darnet !

 

[obscurity]

Nice report, photos and write up. I enjoyed reading that. It's a great place to kayak with so much history.

 

[Lndnpdd]

Very Interesting report on Hoo Island and the wrecks protecting the shore. I am going to say that whilst there are definitely a number of concrete barges there, many of the ones to the east look like steel lighters to me. I reckon there are two tank barges to the south, then the first two on the eastern side are open FCBs, then there are a couple of 'pontoons' that may be concrete but are not FCBS, then a line of 4 steel lighters and then a FCB tank barge at the most northerly point. This write-up is worthy of some edits/builds ' . . . with over 470 being constructed by a building company (rather than shipbuilders) in Barrow-in-Furness' . The number is about right although I have 501 in my list. They were built in Barrow-in-Furness by Wates, but also in Queensferry, North Wales and Hull, and most significantly, in London at West India Docks. All the tank barges were built in London as well as swim-headed open barges. This type of barge was used in the Normandy invasion of June 1944 to transport fuel to other ships engaged in the invasion and may have formed parts of the Mulberry harbours and pontoon bridges that helped move men and equipment to the shore. In my view, this is a myth. Virtually all the tank barges were built in 1944/45 and they were for river and harbour use. They categorically were not part of Mulberry which was Spud Pierheads + intermediate pontoons, Whale bridges spans, Beetles, Phoenix Caissons (+ Bombardons and Gooseberry block ships). I have evidence that FCBs were tested at Garlieston with all other Mulberry components but in common with a number of prototypes, weren't used (eg Hippo, Swiss Roll) as they did not perform well. The Petrol Barges were tested on Exercise Jantzen in South Wales and it was a disaster - they came on to the beaches and gushed petrol everywhere out of cracks and holes. I am about to read your post of Fort Darnet !

This comment highlights what I love about this site, so much knowledge and interesting facts out there! Thanks for this