Location: Nanjemoy, Maryland
Located on the Potomac River in Nanjemoy, Maryland, you can find a ghost shipyard in Mallows Bay. But where did they come from? And how did they get here?
They are actually old World War 1 ships.
When the U.S. entered WWI, the military was coming up a little short on transport vessels, so 1,000 wooden steamships were approved for contraction under the tight deadline of just 18 months. With a rapidly approaching due date and a supply of steel that was reserved for ships that would see battle, the rush job was just that. It resulted in poorly constructed wooden ships that, despite the time saving methods used, didn’t come anywhere close to being ready in time. By the time the Germans had surrendered, not a single ship from the lofty order had crossed the ocean.
With the war over and steel once again in abundance, the ships, mostly unused, became obsolete and were discarded, left to rot in the Potomac. Two salvages were attempted but were,for the most part, unsuccessful due to cost and sheer magnitude.
In the 60s, an effort to clean up the bay was begun in ernest, and research was conducted to inventory, judge cost, and measure the environmental effects of the ships. During that research, it was discovered that the shipwrecks had, in their non-toxic wooden state, become the foundation of an active and thriving ecosystem. Acting as vessels for new life, the ghost ships will remain in the bay until they crumble away to nothing in the waters that they rest in.
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