--- title: Google Barge Project Scrapped over Fire Safety Concerns description: The Coast Guard expressed concern over lack of oversight in the secretive project canonical: https://time.com/3572185/google-barge-fire-safety/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-07T15:22:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:03:37.772Z article:section: Business og:title: Google Barge Project Scrapped over Fire Safety Concerns og:description: The Coast Guard expressed concern over lack of oversight in the secretive project og:url: https://time.com/3572185/google-barge-fire-safety/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd59420d0ac9ae904/698767a88e0601a8a14586f9/ap927807370661.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Google Mystery Barge og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Barge Project Scrapped over Fire Safety Concerns twitter:description: The Coast Guard expressed concern over lack of oversight in the secretive project twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd59420d0ac9ae904/698767a88e0601a8a14586f9/ap927807370661.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Barge Project Scrapped Over Fire Safety Concerns  by [Denver Nicks](/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Nov 7, 2014 3:22 PM CUT  In this Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, file photo, two men fish in the water in front of a Google barge on Treasure Island in San Francisco. The barge portion of the Google barge mystery is only half the story. In this Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, file photo, two men fish in the water in front of a Google barge on Treasure Island in San Francisco. The barge portion of the Google barge mystery is only half the story.Jeff Chiu—AP  by [Denver Nicks](/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Nov 7, 2014 3:22 PM CUT Concerns over fire-safety led Google Inc. to [halt](http://online.wsj.com/articles/fire-safety-concerns-sank-googles-barges-1415320536 "undefined") construction of its “Google barges,” a secretive project that had attracted significant public curiosity. “These vessels will have over 5,000 gallons of fuel on the main deck and a substantial amount of combustible material on board,” wrote Robert Gauvin, the Coast Guard’s acting chief of commercial vessel compliance, in a March 2013 email to Google’s contractor on the project, Foss Maritime Co. The Wall Street _Journal_ broke the story using [documents](http://online.wsj.com/articles/fire-safety-concerns-sank-googles-barges-1415320536 "undefined") obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Google had previously [said](http://techland.time.com/2013/11/07/google-explains-those-barges-finally/ "undefined") the barges, located of the Maine coast and in San Francisco Bay, were to be “an interactive space where people can learn about technology.” The West Coast barge was eventually moved out to storage 80 miles away, while the Maine barge was dismantled and scrapped. [Read more at The Wall Street _Journal_](http://online.wsj.com/articles/fire-safety-concerns-sank-googles-barges-1415320536 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3572185/google-barge-fire-safety/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3572185/google-barge-fire-safety/"},"headline":"Google Barge Project Scrapped Over Fire Safety Concerns","datePublished":"2014-11-07T15:22:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:37.772Z","description":"The Coast Guard expressed concern over lack of oversight in the secretive project","url":"https://time.com/3572185/google-barge-fire-safety/","keywords":["Tech","Google","San Francisco","Maine","safety","Regulation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd59420d0ac9ae904/698767a88e0601a8a14586f9/ap927807370661.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd59420d0ac9ae904/698767a88e0601a8a14586f9/ap927807370661.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google Mystery Barge","caption":"Google Mystery Barge","creditText":"Jeff Chiu—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3572185/google-barge-fire-safety/","name":"Google Barge Project Scrapped Over Fire Safety Concerns"}}]}] ```