A HIDDEN MARYLAND GEM
The History of the Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay A former dumping ground for abandoned ships is now a National Marine Sanctuary. The historic shipwrecks of Mallows Bay provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. Forty miles south of Washington, DC, off of Maryland’s Charles County shoreline near a little town named Nanjemoy, the weather- and water-beaten remains of more than two hundred ships lie in their final resting places in the shallow waters of the Potomac River’s Mallows Bay. “Mallows Bay is the richest marine heritage site in the United States,” according to Samuel Orlando, Chesapeake Bay Regional Coordinator at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) office of National Maritime Sanctuaries. “In addition to being reflective of America’s emergence as a naval superpower during World War I, the Ghost Fleet provides the structure for a unique marine ecosystem.” In November of 2015, the emergent and submerged vessels of this Ghost Fleet, the largest s...