Mallows Bay

The "Ghost Fleet" of Mallows Bay is a reference to the hundreds of ships whose remains still rest in its relatively shallow waters.[6][7] In total, 230 United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation ships are sunken in the river.[8] More than 100 of the vessels are wooden steamships, part of a fleet built to cross the Atlantic during World War I.[6] Because they were built of wood due to a lack of available steel, most of these ships were obsolete upon completion after the end of the war.[6]

The U.S. Navy did not want the ships, which were stored in the James River – at the cost of $50,000 a month – so they were sold to the Western Marine & Salvage Company.[6] The company moved the ships to the Potomac River at Widewater, Virginia and in 1925, they were towed to Mallows Bay.[6] Western Marine went bankrupt and the ships were burned and remained where they lay.[6] During World War II, Bethlehem Steel built a salvage basin to recover metal from the abandoned ships.[8] Wrecks of various civilian boats are also present at the site.[6]

Access to the ships is through Mallows Bay Park, operated by the county, located at 1440 Wilson Landing Road in Nanjemoy, Maryland. A 0.8-mile (1.3 km) trail loops around the park and the salvage basin. In 2010, a boat ramp and pier for recreational use was constructed to provide access to the Potomac River. It is popular to canoe or kayak among the ship ruins; the ships form a reef that hosts an array of wildlife.[9][10][8]

The bay was listed as an archaeological and historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015, and was declared a National Marine Sanctuary in September 2019.

Among the most prominent ships seen at Mallows Bay is the S.S. Accomac.[11][12][13]

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  Aerial photograph 1936. Mallows Bay on Potomac River below Quantico and between Sandy Point and Liverpool Point. (Full image)
• 
  Valuable maritime heritage
• 
  Almost submerged shipwrecks, February 2017

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Charles County, Maryland

Notes

Further reading

• Shomette, Donald (1996) Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay and Other Tales of the Lost Chesapeake. Centreville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers. ISBN 0870334808. OCLC 35103126.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mallows Bay.

• Mallows Bay Park, 1440 Wilson Landing Road, Nanjemoy, MD 20662
• Mallows Bay-Widewater Historic and Archeological District, at Maryland Historical Trust
• Mallows Bay - Potomac River: A Proposed National Marine Sanctuary. NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
• NOAA. National System of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
• Ghost Fleet Fast Facts. Oct 31, 2017. National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
• Friends of Mallows Potomac National Marine Sanctuary in Nanjemoy, Maryland
• Friends of Mallows Potomac National Marine Sanctuary Facebook page
• Mallows Bay - Potomac River: A Proposed National Marine Sanctuary. Chesapeake Conservancy
• The Nature Conservancy - Passport to Nature: Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay
• The National Trust for Historic Preservation. National Treasures. Ghost Fleet of the Potomac. Location: Charles County, Maryland
• 'The Ghosts of These Historic Ships Float On'. Named a National Treasure. The National Trust for Historic Preservation. Preservation Magazine, Winter 2018
• NOAA Nautical Chart 12288 - Potomac River
• "Mallows Bay". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
• Aerial imagery of Mallows Bay from The National Map
• Mallows Bay Ghost Fleet along the Potomac River - from fossilguy
• 'Secrets of the Chesapeake'. Maryland Public TV (MPT) Specials. PBS. 56:50
• PBS 'Secrets of the Chesapeake': Mallows Bay WWI shipwrecks. Broadcast April 18, 2012. Includes Photos Mallows Bay 1 & 2.
• Hansler, Jennifer (October 26, 2016). "What We Know About the Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay" (Video). ABC News. Retrieved October 27, 2016.