Question: What historic ship was scuttled off the coast of Galveston’s Pelican Island?
Answer: The SS Selma, the largest of 12 concrete tankers constructed during and shortly after World War I due to steel shortages. The 425-foot vessel was built by Fred T. Ley & Company in Mobile, Alabama, and launched on June 28, 1919. Less than a year later, it struck a jetty in Tampico, Mexico, which caused a 60-foot crack. After attempts to repair her were unsuccessful, the Selma was laid to rest in 1922 in a 1,500-foot channel north of Galveston.
The Selma was used to store alcohol during Prohibition. For a few years in the 1940s, a man lived on the ship, where he “never bothered about taxes, food, high rent, women, or many of the other perplexing problems that harass the mind of the average man in modern civilization.” Today, it’s an excellent fishing spot.
