SS Atlantus
Concrete Cargo Ship · United States · Lost 1926 · The New Jersey Coast
A World War I experiment in concrete shipbuilding, retired and repurposed as a ferry dock, broke loose in a storm and has crumbled off Cape May ever since.
JoHannah Cornett - Boots
See Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
SS Atlantus was one of twelve concrete cargo ships built for the World War I Emergency Fleet Corporation. After brief cargo and troop-transport service, she was retired and purchased in 1926 to form part of a ferry dock at Cape May. A June 1926 storm tore her free of her moorings, and she grounded permanently at Sunset Beach, where her broken concrete hull remains a well-known landmark.
Vessel
- 1918
- Official number 218120
- Liberty Shipbuilding Company
- Brunswick, Georgia
- Not established
- 260 ft
- 43.5 ft
- 2391
- Steam, triple-expansion, single screw
- National Navigation Company (at time of loss)
Loss
- June 8, 1926
- Storm
- Sunset Beach, Cape May, New Jersey
- Delaware Bay
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
- Split in the midsection since the late 1950s; steadily crumbling above the waterline
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- 38.94° N 74.97° W
- Approximate position
- Cape May, New Jersey
Evidence
Overall confidence: Well documented (92/100)
Cape May County Historical marker (HMdb)
Grounding narrative and site description.
Concrete Ships historical archive
Construction history and later ferry-dock plan.
