One of the joys of living where I do is easy access to the coast of Monterey Bay and, in particular, to what is known locally as "the cement ship". Started toward the end of the first world war (but launched in May 1919 after it's end) the SS Palo Alto was constructed of reinforced concrete in Oakland. Pretty much surplus to requirements as soon as she was launched, she was mothballed until 1929 when she was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. A pier was built leading to the ship in 1930 and she was sunk in a few feet in the water so that her keel rested on the sandy bottom. There she was refitted as an amusement ship, with amenities including a dance floor, a swimming pool and a café. The company went bankrupt two years later during the Great Depression, and the ship cracked at the midsection during a winter storm. The State of California purchased the ship,and she was stripped of her fittings and left as a fishing pier with access from the pier to the stern half of the ship.

Over the years she slowly deteriorated and in the early 1990s this resulted in public access to the ship itself being terminated -- from hereon out she became a refuge for multitudes of marine life and sea-birds and retained her popularity as a fishing pier. Over the decades she had broken into into four roughly segmented pieces, but winter storms in February 2016 caused more significant damage to the wreck and broke its rear half open. Most recently, on January 21, 2017, another major winter storm tore the stern off the ship and tilted it over at a 90-degree angle. The seaward third of the pier was closed following the 2016 storm.