The SS Palo Alto, aka “the cement ship” was permanently docked in 1930 at the end of a pier in Aptos, CA (where I grew up), and served as a resort gambling and dance destination for a year before storm damage made it usable for nothing more than a fishing spot.
It was built in 1918 to serve as a tanker for WWI, but never saw any use before the war ended. It was moved to the end of a pier off the beach in Aptos and opened in 1930 as a resort. It closed a year later when the hull cracked, and has been slowly falling apart ever since. It’s been damaged more and more over the years, and when I was a kid only the stern was accessible. When I was a kid you could go on part of the ship for fishing, but sometime in the 1980s I think, it was cut off from the pier altogether as it was considered unsafe. A couple years ago the stern fell over. Today it’s an artificial reef for local fish, and kind of an eyesore. But it’s still scenic at sunset.
Migrated from Instagram @roamingbill on 2026-04-12