SS Monte Carlo
SS Monte Carlo wreck visible at low tide near Coronado Shores 30 January 2010
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| History | |
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| Name: |
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| Owner: | Associated Oil Company (1923-1932) |
| Ordered: | 1918 |
| Builder: | Liberty Ship Building Company in Wilmington, North Carolina (later the Newport Shipbuilding Company) |
| Launched: | 1921 |
| Completed: | 1921 |
| In service: | 1923 |
| Out of service: | 1932 |
| Fate: | Wrecked 1937 |
| Notes: | Ship was built out of reinforced concrete |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Concrete oil tanker based off an incomplete EFC Design 1070 cargo vessel |
| Type: | Oil tanker |
| Length: | 300 ft (91 m) |
| Beam: | 44 ft (13 m) |
| Height: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | Single Nordberg triple expansion steam engine |
| Notes: | Started construction as the EFC Design No. 1070 concrete oil tanker Old North State |
The SS Monte Carlo was a concrete oil tanker launched in 1921 as the SS McKittrick but later became a gambling and prostitution ship in 1936 off the coast of Coronado, California.
On 12 April 1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved the construction of concrete ships, overseen by the Emergency Fleet Corporation. In total, 24 ships were approved for construction. Only 12 ships were completed by armistice in 1918. The remaining unbuilt ships were cancelled. However, a 13th and final ship was still under construction at the Newport Shipbuilding Company yard in Wilmington, North Carolina. A third sister to the previously completed Design No. 1070 type concrete oil tankers the Sapona and Cape Fear was incomplete. This vessel was known as the Old North State. Author Norman McKellar believed the Old North State continued construction and was completed in 1921 under the temporary name of Tanker No. 1 more than likely heavily modified from its original Emergency Fleet Corporation design.Tanker No. 1 was used by the U.S. Quartermaster Corps until 1923, when the vessel was purchased by the Associated Oil Company of San Francisco, California and re-purposed as the commercial oil tanker McKittrick. The McKittrick was powered by a single Nordberg triple expansion steam engine which was the same unit built in to the other Emergency Fleet Corporation concrete vessels.
In 1932, the McKittrick was sold to Ed Turner and Martin Schouwiler and renamed the Monte Carlo. Her hull was filled with further concrete in order to reduce motion and the former oil tanker was converted into a gambling and prostitution ship. She became the largest gambling ship operating off the California coast line. Monte Carlo opened for business off Long Beach, California on 7 May 1932 in tandem with the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Monte Carlo was moved to international waters off Coronado Island in 1936. California based law enforcement was unable to shut down the operations of the ship as she lay out of state and federal law jurisdiction in international waters. Water taxis and ferries carried customers from land to the Monte Carlo from shore. These craft were subject to high taxation in an attempt to financially ruin the Monte Carlo.
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