Google Earth Community: Largest Shipwreck Fleet in the Western Hemisphere

On the Potomac River some 30 miles downstream from Washington, D. C., just across the river from the Quantico Marine Corps Base, lies a quiet backwater known as Mallows Bay. During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson called for some 1,000 wooden steamships to be built to support the war effort. By the end of the war in 1918, only 134 had been launched, none of which had crossed the Atlantic, and another 263 were half-finished. Since the contracts had already been issued, ships were still being built until the government finally pulled the plug on the operation in December of 1920.

For a time, a fleet of 285 leaky, outdated ships was mothballed in Virginia's James River until they were finally sold for scrap in 1922. In 1924, the Western Marine and Salvage Company bought 556 acres of farmland along the shore of Mallows Bay and proceeded to build four marine railways, wharves, offices, storage buildings and dormitories at Sandy Point, on the northern lip of the bay. Just before sunup on on November 7, 1925, the salvors began by setting fire to 31 of the wooden ships at once and allowing them to burn down to the waterline. Workers then moved in to remove the usable scrap metal from the hulks, and then abandoned the remains to rot in the bay. The operation continued until 1931, when the company went bankrupt.

During the Depression, a cottage industry of independent salvors sprang up along the shores of the bay, attracting at least five floating brothels and no less than 26 illegal stills to the area. During World War II, the price of scrap metal skyrocketed again, and Bethlehem Steel moved in to scavenge the remaining wrecks.

Today, the remains of some 169 World War I-era wooden steamships lie in the shallows of Mallows Bay, along with many other derelict vessels of all kinds dating from the late 18th century through the 1980s, including a great seagoing car ferry named Accomac, 12 barges, a possible Revolutionary War longboat, several 19th-century log canoes and schooners, a North Carolina menhaden boat, and miscellaneous workboats.

Unfortunately, this area is still in low-res, so I have added an overlay from TerraServer to show the extent of the shipwrecks.

The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay

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Edited by Yellowstone (08/12/05 11:21 PM)

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