Placed in 1948 to create a breakwater for the ferry system, these nine World War II-era concrete ships were built in the early 1940s by McCloskey and Company of Philadelphia because of a steel shortage. They were used primarily as cargo ships transporting freight to Allied forces in Japan and in training exercises in the Pacific. The ships now provide a unique habitat for birds and marine life, including striped bass, flounder, tautog, black sea bass, ospreys, and pigeons. The nine ships are S.S. William Foster Cowham, S.S. John Grant, S.S. Robert Whitman Lesley, S.S. Richard Kidder Meade, S.S. Willard A. Pollard, S.S. Willis A. Slater, S.S. Arthur Newell Talbot, S.S. Edward Thatcher, and S.S. Leonard Chase Wason.
