From Phil Edwards.
Head over to https://eightsleep.yt.link/7ahrnGY to get $350 off your very own Pod 5 Ultra. The best part is that you still get 30 days to try it at home and return it if you don’t like it – but I am confident you will keep it. Trust me, your body will thank you for this investment in better sleep. Shipping to many countries worldwide. See details at https://eightsleep.yt.link/7ahrnGY
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What if I told you the U.S. built dozens of concrete ships—yes, ships made of concrete—and many of them are still floating today? In this video, I kayak out to nine concrete ships stranded off the coast of Virginia at Kiptopeke State Park, explore the wartime engineering behind them, and trace the strange global afterlives of these vessels. From WWI oil tankers to WWII cargo carriers, we dive into why these ships were built, how they worked (or didn’t), and why scarcity of steel drove one of the weirdest design experiments in maritime history.
With help from Richard Lewis, co-founder of The Crete Fleet database and a man who has tracked 1,800+ ferrocement ships worldwide, we explore the McCloskey shipyard in Tampa, Florida, where 24 concrete ships were built in just 14 months. You’ll see how two of these ships helped form the D-Day Gooseberry breakwaters off Normandy, others became floating ice cream barges, and some were literally sunk to create breakwaters in Powell River, Canada. Through diagrams, launch footage, Popular Science illustrations, and a few kayak mishaps, we uncover how these “bargain-bin Liberty ships” reflect Moneyball-style engineering under constraint.
Concrete ships weren’t faster. They weren’t better. But they were available—and that made them valuable. This video is part history documentary, part design explainer, and part travelogue to forgotten maritime relics. If you’re into wartime engineering, experimental shipbuilding, ferrocement technology, reused military infrastructure, or just weird infrastructure stories, this one’s for you. Hit subscribe for more deep dives into strange design decisions and overlooked history. Full article and bonus content in the free newsletter (via Patreon link below).
