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U.S.S.
ABALONIA
A CONCRETE SHIP THAT SUNK ON CORTES BANK 106 miles from San Deigo In
1969 a
group of promoters bought the World
War II surplus troop ship SS Jalisco, renamed her USS Abalonia, and
sailed her to
the bank, intending to sink her in shallow water to form a tax-free
island
nation and shellfish processing plant. But during that sinking rough
seas broke
a mooring line and pushed her into deeper water. Another company
planned to
build a platform on the bank and form a nation called TALUGA,
but the
US
government declared that the bank, as part of the continental shelf,
was US
territory. The wreck of the Abalonia today lies in three pieces
under
about 40 feet (12 m) of water and is another dive spot. Wikipedia
Jalisco
PHOTOS in AP story |
 TALUGA
means
"Cow Peas" in the Seminole
language. Taluga river/creek is in Liberty
County Florida. There
is a girl in Florida who used to wear cowpeas in hair and added Taluga
to her name. There
was a ship USS TALUGA AO-62. This webpage
has been created because of this ship. The Taluga, in 2010, was
scrapped.
SS
Jalisco; as described in the Herbert
Lee Seward Collection, had Hull #429.
The blue prints were found in Box No.6 |
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ABALONIA IS A CONCRETE
SHIP:
Concrete ships are ships built
of steel and ferrocement
(reinforced concrete) instead of more traditional materials, such as
steel or
wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are
cheap and
readily available, while the disadvantages are that construction labor
costs
are high, as are operating costs. (Ferrocement ships require thick
hulls, which
means extra mass to push and less space for cargo.) During the late
19th century,
there were concrete river barges in Europe, and during both World War I
and
World War II, the US military ordered the construction of small fleets
of ocean-going concrete ships. Few concrete ships were completed in
time to see
wartime service during World War I, but during 1944 and 1945, concrete
ships
and barges were used to support U.S. and British invasions in Europe
and the
Pacific. Since the late 1930s, there have also been ferrocement
pleasure boats. Click
image below for source of these words.
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