SS Selma
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Steel shortages during World War I led the U.S. to build experimental concrete ships, the largest of which was the SS Selma, today partially submerged in Galveston Bay and visible from this site. It was built in Mobile, Alabama, and named to honor Selma, Alabama, for its successful wartime liberty loan drive. The ship was launched on June 28, 1919, the same day Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I. As a result, the 7,500-ton ship never entered the war, but instead was placed into service as an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico. In Tampico, Mexico, on May 31, 1920, the SS Selma hit a jetty, ripping a hole in its hull about 60 feet long. After attempts to repair the ship in Galveston failed and efforts to sell the ship proved unsuccessful, U.S. officials decided to intentionally scuttle the ship. A channel 1,500 feet long and 25 feet deep was dug to a point just off Pelican Island's eastern shoreline where on March 9, 1922, the ship was laid to rest. The Selma has since been the object of failed plans to convert it for use as a fishing pier, pleasure resort, and oyster farm. Long a source of curiosity and local legend, it remains important to scientists who continued to study aspects of its concrete construction. In 1993, the SS Selma was designated a State Archeological Landmark, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and has been designated as the Official Flagship of the Texas Army. (1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Faced with wartime steel shortages, the United States gambled on an unusual idea during World War I: ships made of concrete. The largest was the SS Selma, built in Mobile, Alabama, and launched on June 28, 1919—the very day Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles. Too late for the war, she served briefly as a Gulf oil tanker until a jetty tore open her hull in 1920, and after failed repairs she was deliberately scuttled off Pelican Island in 1922, where her concrete skeleton still breaks the waters of Galveston Bay.
Why it matters
The Selma is a rare surviving monument to a bold WWI industrial experiment, testifying to how total war drove Americans to reinvent even the materials from which they built their ships.
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Related events
- · World War I
- · Treaty of Versailles
Themes & tags
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