Show OLD STONE BOAT STILL AT WORK IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY concrete ship belles the derision handed it in shipping circles ban francisco cal alluded to as it by seafaring men rather than she as Is befitting any worthy sea going craft of steel or wood the con crete ship Is doing dally duty in the bay of san francisco that belles the derision of shipping circles although the war was over before the took the ways under the coldly official designation of con crete tanker no 1 the ship was nevertheless a creature of the great conflict its genesis was the need of the nation to build boats faster than the submarines could sink them private builders working under the critical eye of the government laid down three concrete vessels of asoo tons the first of these the faith was at the outset pronounced a sue cess for it made the trial trip in first class fashion but under more severe conditions it developed a condemning similarly the other two proved failures but profiting hy ex peri ence the government had the tanker built A lighter mixture was used and im prove ments were effected in the steel reinforcing triple expansion engines of asoo horse power were installed the tanker went to mexico on its test and returning with a load of oil weathered a tremendous storm in alie caribbean sea the commanding officer declared it an seaworthy ea any ship he had ever handled but the war was over there was not a supply of steel and timber the boat which bad cost about a half million to build was about to be sold by the shipping board for george D zeli traffic manager of the associated oil company thought the tanker was worth more than ahli to bis company lie was deaf to the ridicule of hla associates and abed the purchase zeh has kept a record of the tank ers performance and the stone boat about which lie has been joshed has paid for itself eral times it has never lost time because of storm or needed repairs and although capable of only eight knots an hour it plods its way across and around the bay day after day transporting 20 bar aels of oil at u time 1 I don t suppose there will ever be another concrete boat but zeh said there Is no longer any need for them but this one Is far from being the dud it has been called |