How the Gaza Humanitarian Aid Pier traces its origins to discarded cigar boxes before World War II

Palestinians in Gaza have begun receiving humanitarian assistance, delivered through a newly accomplished floating pier off the coast of the besieged area. The pier was built by the U.S. military and operated in coordination with the United Nations, aid organizations and other nations' militaries. Its origins date back to a mid-Twentieth century U.S. Navy officer who collected discarded cigar boxes to experiment with a brand new idea.

Among the artifacts from the military collections National Museum of American HistoryI stumbled upon these humble cigar boxes and the remarkable history they contain.

In 1939 John Noble Laycockthen commander of the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, was assigned as a war planning officer for the Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks in Washington, D.C., to assist prepare for a possible war within the Pacific.

Laycock needed to determine methods to establish naval bases on undeveloped islands. The top priority could be what the military called “naval lightening,” the method by which cargo and supplies are moved by ships to a coast where there aren’t any ports or docks for docking.

That's it Problem facing the relief effort in Gaza – and a situation that military and humanitarian groups have faced countless times over the past century.

In his predecessors' office files, Laycock found plans developed within the Nineteen Thirties to make use of small pontoons – essentially floating boxes – that might be easily transported and quickly assembled by hand into larger barges or floating platforms. However, Laycock saw problems with the design of the plans and the way in which the pontoons were to be connected together. And he had an idea.

In my Research into his workI came upon that around July 1940, Laycock began visiting every concessionaire on the Navy headquarters, then positioned on the National Mall, and asking them to avoid wasting empty cigar boxes for him. Laycock and a helper lined up the boxes and distributed them evenly. Then they connected them with picket strips from children's kites, which they secured to the corners of the boxes with small nuts and bolts.

The easy model showed that it was possible to attach individual, evenly sized, small pontoon boxes right into a for much longer and far stronger floating beam. Multiple supports will be combined in the bottom to create a platform of any size needed. A sufficiently large platform could carry cargo, military trucks and armored vehicles weighing as much as 55 tons.

From cigar boxes to steel pontoons

In August 1940, while on a family vacation, Laycock discovered exactly methods to connect the person pontoons, which were manufactured from steel quite than wood or cardboard like his cigar box model. He designed steel fasteners – enlarged bolts and nuts called “jewels” that will be inserted and tightened by hand – that may withstand the stresses of the ocean's movement beneath a floating platform.

Through trial and error and applying various military requirements akin to the width of the steel plates, the burden of the empty pontoon, the depth required for floating and the load capability Laycock designed a straightforward pontoon 5 feet high, 7 feet long and 5 feet wide. He also designed a curved section to serve because the bow of a pontoon-based transport ship. By 1941, tests had proven that the design and system were ready for mass production.

Floating steel dams

Pontoon technology first entered the war within the South Pacific in February 1942, when the Naval Construction Force, also referred to as the Seabees, brought it to Bora Bora within the Society Islands. The Seabees were pleased with the way it worked, contributing to the system's nickname – Laycock's “Magic Box.”

The universal nature of pontoons made it possible to construct one Series of floating structures, including excavators, barges, floating cranes, workshops, warehouses and gas stations, tugs, piling rigs and dry docks. These pontoon structures might be found from Guadalcanal to the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, and the Philippines.

Planning for the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 found one other use for Laycock's pontoon system. In late 1942, Royal Navy Captain Thomas A. Hussey realized that the Sicilian beaches had gentle slopes. During an invasion, landing craft, particularly those designed for tanks, will be expected to run aground several hundred feet above land in 6 feet of water. Even waterproof vehicles could be flooded and will sink.

Conscious of the Laycock pontoons, Hussey inquired whether the units could form a floating road, called a causeway, to bridge the gap between the ship and the shore. Laycock developed a way of constructing narrow causeways two pontoons wide and 30 pontoons long – about 175 feet. Arranging them side by side creates a floating dam 325 feet long. They could even be towed or carried by landing craft and deployed in shallow water upon arrival.

In mid-March 1943 the dams were successfully tested proved successful in Sicily. In 23, 24-hour days, the Seabees unloaded over 10,000 vehicles, including trucks, jeeps, halftracks, and towed artillery, onto the causeways. Senior American and British leaders said the landings couldn’t have happened so quickly Wouldn't there be the pontoon causeways?.

Pontoon highways in Normandy

Similar to Sicily, the coast of Normandy in France had beaches with gentle, flat slopes. Floating pontoon causeways were key to the D-Day landings by U.S., British and Canadian forces on June 6, 1944. Engineers would anchor one end of the dam to the shore and extend the structure far enough out to sea in order that cargo ships could dock at low or high tide without running aground.

Additional pontoons were added to the perimeters every few hundred feet along the causeway to form piers, allowing multiple ships to dock at the identical time no matter tidal conditions. They could unload directly onto dry pontoons, identical to at any normal pier or dock.

This system allowed for an enormous round the clock flow of tanks, trucks, artillery, supplies and personnel to support the fighting as Allied forces pushed inland through Normandy in the approaching months.

Use in war and for humanitarian aid

Over the many years, this idea evolved with technological advances in construction and fasteners Pontoon systems utilized in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. These have now also been improved and have helped to offer humanitarian aid, for instance in Haiti after a severe earthquake in 2010.

The Gaza pier includes each parts of the pontoon system – Laycock's original floating platform as Cargo hub 3 miles offshoreand the British-proposed floating causeway and pier system that might allow truck deliveries to achieve land. All from a humble cigar box concept model.