Aboard The Concrete Wreck That Floated Germany's Scuttled Fleet

100 years ago, this forgotten Scottish barge was raising German destroyers from the seabed

Welcome to the first instalment of Journeys in Time & Place, exploring hidden connections of history in the world around us. This one comes to you from Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. (For shorter reading, consider my Travel Journal or Sketches.)

If you’re a paid subscriber you can listen to my 10-minute voiceover, which you’ll find beneath the cut.

---

It seems a mad choice of material now, but there was once a good case for making ships out of concrete. Here in the Outer Hebrides, one of the most intact survivors is quietly resisting the onslaught of decades, long after most hulls of its era have disintegrated to oblivion. I’ve been aboard, dug into its history, and found it to be more interesting than I thought. And although no one seems to be celebrating, late 2024 is the centenary of its most impressive feat.

European shipbuilders began experimenting with reinforced concrete barges in the mid-19th century and returned to them with a new urgency during World War I. German torpedoes were destroying British and American boats at a horrifying rate, racking up a total of 5000 Allied merchant ships sunk by the War’s end. Replacements were needed, and with steel in short supply, reinforced concrete was considered a viable alternative. The British government placed orders for 24 steam ships and 130 concrete barges. Not all of them made it into production, but one of those that did was called Cretetree.