NOTE: The Cement Ship crashed onto its side on Jan.21, 2017, hit by large waves.

Seacliff State Beach Visitor Center
State Park Drive
Aptos, CA 95003 
parks.ca.gov

Rio del Mar Beach, Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California contains a very unique attraction at the end of its pier. A cement ship named SS Palo Alto was stationed there, though its old and decaying form finally gave way at the start of the new year, 2017.

When the ship stood upright you could not physically get onto the cordoned-off structure at the end of  wooden deck of the pier.

You can stand and watch hundreds of birds who continue to find refuge on the crumbling cement fragments slipping into the ocean deeper and deeper, in what remains a story of significance about the booming era of the early 1900s.  California was set to become a great tourist destination and the cement ship offered promise of things to come.

Imagine the time in which the cement ship was built. During WWI when metals for construction were scarce, a Norwegian civil engineer (Fougner) recommended using cement.

Three concrete ships were built beginning in 1917 --. Two, the Peralta and the S.S. Palo Alto, were built at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, California while the third, the Faith, was built in a shipyard in Redwood City, California. The Peralta and the Palo Alto were built for wartime use as tankers, however World War One (1914-1918) ended before ship construction was finished -- so they were never used.

Palo Alto remained docked in Oakland until 1929, when the Cal-Nevada Company bought the ship with the idea of making her into an amusement and fishing ship. Her maiden voyage was made under tow to Seacliff State Beach.

Once positioned at the beach, the sea cocks were opened and the Palo Alto settled to the ocean bottom. By the summer of 1930 a pier was constructed, leading to the remodeled cement ship. A dance floor on the main deck was added, also a cafe in the superstructure was built, as was a fifty-four foot heated swimming pool, and a series of carnival type concessions were placed on the afterdeck. The Cal-Nevada Company went broke after two seasons -- then the Palo Alto was stripped, leaving the ship and the pier to be used only for fishing.

The state beach next to the pier permits RV overnight camping and offers shaded picnic areas and a visitors center with a gift shop.

The SS Palo Alto, a ship completed around 1919, had oil aboard the nearly century-old ship. It was found in one port forward bunker tank, which was configured much like an animal trap. With a narrow, vertical opening that led to a large, horizontal, rectangular tank, birds could get in, but very few got out. This death trap became an oil removal project at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos.

Removal of oil found in the cement ship, SS Palo Alto, in 2006 at Seacliff State Beach helped create the great, safe haven for wildlife. A join project, The Unified Command - the California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), Department of Parks and Recreation, U.S. Coast Guard, and contractor Titan Maritime - all sought to prevent future wildlife entrapment. Titan's crew opened the tank's entry hole to 4 feet by 10 feet, and removed all the oil and oily sediment. 173 birds, two deceased harbor seals, and animal parts in various stages of decomposition were removed from the tank, the oil was disposed of properly and the cement ship looks exactly the same as it did.