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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Phoenix Afloat

A concreate breakwater
Description: Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Dwight C. Shepler; 1944; Framed Dimensions 24H X30W
Accession #: 88-199-FE
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One of the great concrete sections of the main breakwater for a "Mulberry" floated at a fitting-out basin. Its hull of hollow and compartmented concrete, reinforced with tons of steel, had valves which permitted internal flooding as tugs nudged the sinking leviathan into its place in the breakwater of the man-made harbor on the Normandy coast.


The outermost auxiliary element of the "Mulberry" harbor was a line of floating breakwaters. These were long steel floats, cruciform in cross-section. They were moored to the bottom and so sluggish in buoyancy that they barely showed above the surface. They knocked down and absorbed the force of the seaward swells before they reached the main breakwater composed of phoenix units and block ships.

Topic
Document Type
  • Art
Wars & Conflicts
  • World War II 1939-1945
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  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials