QUARTZ IX 150

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Maritime Commission type B7-D1 non-self propelled concrete-hulled barge
Built at Barrett, Hilp & Belair Shipyard, San Francisco, CA
Launched December 4 1943
Acquired by U.S. Navy April 13 1944


1. QUARTZ IX-150
Placed In Service as Miscellaneous Unclassified (IX) April 13 1944
Placed Out of Service December 31 1946
Struck from Naval Register January 22 1947


2. QUARTZ (Commercial Service)
Sold to Foss Launch and Tug Co. on 11th August 1947
Sold to Powell River Company in 1956
Now serving as a floating breakwater at Powell River, British Columbia, Canada

 

Conflicting History Data

There is some disagreement regarding the ship's post-WWII history.

NavSource says:
Sold to Foss Launch and Tug Co., 23 October 1947
Final Disposition, serving as a floating breakwater at Powell River, British Columbia, Canada

Wikipedia says:
"...the Navy sold her on 23 October 1947 to the Powell River Company, where she was permanently anchored with nine other hulls to form a breakwater protecting the Catalyst Paper mill log pond in Powell River, British Columbia."

The Crete Fleet says:
"Foss Launch & Tug Co. bought 'Quartz' on 11th August 1947. On 23rd October 1947, she was delivered to Nordland, Washington."
"In 1956, ‘Quartz’ was sold to Powell River Company for $36,500 and she arrived on the river on 12th November 1956."
"Now known as Hulk #8, she remains afloat as part of the unique concrete ship breakwater at Powell River, B.C. at 49.86332, -124.55447..."

I will go with the history as stated in "The Crete Fleet" webpage. NavSource and Wikipedia get some parts right and some parts wrong/missing.

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 7z

1946-08-04

The ship was scheduled for a post office, but that order was cancelled 1945-02-01.

 

Other Information

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons...
American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal

Ship was never commissioned only Placed in Service

NAMESAKE - Silicon dioxide (Si02) a hard, vitreous mineral occurring in many varieties and comprising 12% of the earth’s crust

 

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