On June 28, 1919, the first concrete-hulled ship built in Mobile, the USS Selma, was launched and prepared to aid allied forces. On June 28, 1919, ...

In addition to thousands of steel ships, the corporation commissioned 24 ships made of ferrocement, or reinforced concrete. By the time the war ended, however, only a dozen were under construction.

Concrete might not be the first material you'd associate with ships, but during times of steel shortages and wartime necessity, engineers turned to this unlikely solution. These huge concrete ...

One of just three full-sized concrete ships built on San Francisco Bay during World War I, the 435-foot-long, 7,500-ton Palo Alto had been launched at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, May 29, 1919.