Cement Ships and the Wall

Besides a killer view out my front window, Seacliff State Beach has a couple of other memorable qualities.  The first is the rather large cement tanker ship named the SS Palo Alto parked at the end of the fishing pier.

Steel shortages during World War I created the opportunity to build ships from concrete.  Unfortunately, the order for the $1.5 million Palo Alto was placed in 1918 just six months before the end of the war. With the end of the war, the desperate need for ships also ended and the Palo Alto was never completed.  In 1929 after years of languishing in the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, the Seacliff Amusement Company bought the ship and had it towed to the Seacliff Beach.  After months construction, the pier was finished, the ship was revamped and by the summer of 1930 the Palo Alto was opened as an entertainment resort center. There was a ballroom, a restaurant with beautiful ocean views and carnival type concessions on the afterdeck.

Unfortunately, bad timing again plagued the SS Palo Alto and the Seacliff Amusement Company went bankrupt after just two short years, due in large part to the great depression. The first winter after the close of the ship, a  heavy storm cracked the Palo Alto amidships, eventually leading to the extensive damage seen today.
Today the Palo Alto is a wildlife sanctuary providing a home to a variety of wildlife including fish, crabs, mussels, barnacles, harbor seals, sea gulls, pelicans, and cormorants. It seems that after a very rocky beginning, the SS Palo Alto has finally found its true purpose.

The second interesting feature at Seacliff is known as “the wall” (no, not a Pink Floyd reference) or “the memorial wall”.  If you take the beach walk all the way to the end of the campground there is a large private residence wall hidden behind seven olive trees.  No one really knows how it was started but it is filled with touching tributes to beloved people and animals.

One of the most unique memorials is an out-stretched hand in bronze with the plaque that says, “To life, to love, to health and to all the loving stories on the wall — ‘High Five!’”.

We had a wonderful time at Seacliff State Beach and will definitely return again.

My 3 Fun Facts:

1. Concrete ships were the brainchild of a Norwegian Civil Engineer named Nicolay Fougner.
2. In February of 1936 the SS Palo Alto was sold to the state for one dollar.
3. Timing is everything.