April 29, 2000

Now I know (Mallows Bay Redux)

Mallows Bay

8.2 miles

Water Temp: 60 degrees

1942 Arial Photo

Terraserver Photo

Topo Map

I had been there four times last year and each time was awestruck by the number of ships that were laid to rest in this little bay. About all I knew about the site was there were somewhere over one hundred World War I merchant ships burned to the waterline sometime during the 1920's. On one trip over with Joan, I had said that 'next year' I would like to coordinate a trip to Mallows Bay. This is that trip.

Trip planning started in early March. I was surprised at the interest as fifteen people expressed an interest to go. But as time marched on towards the launch date almost 2 months away, the herd began to thin until on launch day we were left with five kayakers destined for a trip back into history.

Knowing there was much more to the history of the bay than I knew, I had asked Amigh if she would check out the book "Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay" from the library and write a short trip synopsis that I could hand out at the launch site. I was a bit surprised that not only did Amigh agree, she went out and bought the book. But as launch time grew near, Amigh too would have to cancel. Amigh finished the bio and mailed me the book the last week before the trip as a gift.

And what a gift it was. Each evening after work I read through the pages with great interest about the history of this little bay. I was beginning to visualize a trip through time starting on April 2, 1917 and ending 83 years later on April 29th, 2000. As the days to the trip were few, I found myself spending every spare moment trying to get through the book and learn as much as I could before our trip back in time.

"On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued a national call to arms against Imperial Germany. What followed in the United States was a frenzied effort to build hundreds of merchant ships to replace those being destroyed in Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. The newly created U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation embarked on a course that, in the span of a few pivotal years in American history, came to exhibit mankind's genius, ignorance, avarice, drive-and folly-for the largest portion of that fleet came to rest on the muddy floor of Mallows Bay."

I arrived at the Quantico Marine Base about 7:30 and found Craig had beaten me there. Craig is a bag boater and wanted to arrive in plenty of time to set up. I unloaded my truck and waited for the rest to show up for a launch time of about 9:00. Soon Joan, Alice and David were ready to go and I made sure everyone got copies of the trip bio that Amigh had written and copy of the survey maps of the bay.

As the tide was going out in short order we were spat out of Chopawamsic creek and into the Potomac river. To our south about 2.5 miles was Widewater - the anchorage used by the wooden fleet after the war while they awaited destruction. We took up a course heading of 120 degrees with our destination being Sandy Point on the Maryland side of the river. A two-mile open water crossing, the weather could not have been better for the trip across. A slight cool breeze to keep us from overheating, and a beautiful sunny day with no waves.

At Sandy Point we beached near the "Sentinel", the remains of the northernmost ship in the Mallows fleet. Called the Sentinel because it stood guard over the bay, its true name is unknown. This hull was found floating free in the river channel sometime after 1942 and was drawn back to the shore and tied with steel cables to trees to make sure it did not escape again. One hundred feet from the ship were the remains of an old wooden barge and the pilings of the wharf used by Western Marine and Salvage Company in the 1920s.

From Widewater the ships were taken north to Alexandria Virginia where they would have the bulk of their metal salvaged. Metal pipes, steam engines, anything that could be easily turned to metal scrap was removed and then the wood hull was towed back to Widewater to await disposition. It was here that the first experiment in burning the hulls took place as five ships were pulled near shore and burned to the waterline. They were then pulled ashore and the burning process was completed. A tremendous success, or so the salvage company thought.

The local residents and fishermen were up in arms. Widewater had been a favorite hangout for shad and the charcol from the burnt wood were driving the fish away. The metal that fell into the water as the ships burned caused concern for the well being of the fishermen's nets. So the salvage company looked for a more remote area to conduct their shipbreaking operations.

The land around Mallows Bay happened to be for sale, and the sign over of the deed would seal this little bay forever into the history books. At Sandy Point four railroad lines were built which led to the water. The ships would be hauled up on land and further reduced to scrap. It didn't take long for the salvage company to realize this would be a slow and unprofitable method to dispose of the ships so they began hauling them into place and burning them in the bay.

From Sandy Point we headed south for about a half-mile to the northern lip of the bay. I was leading the way so I missed the expression of people as we paddled in among the hulls of a once great fleet of steam ships. We beached once again in this area to climb the cliff and get a better view of the wreckage. Almost as far as you could see was the largest collection of wrecks in all of the United States.

Here Mardi caught up with us from her put in south of Mallows. We were now 6 kayaks testing the waters of the ship graveyard. Heading to the south end of the bay, we paused by the only all metal ship in the bay. The Accomac started life as 'Virginia Lee' for the Virginia Ferry Company in 1928 for service between Cape Charles and Norfolk. . I talked with Bill Dodge a few days before this trip and he informed me that as a child, he may have traveled on this ship. There is no written record on when it was scuttled in the bay, having its stern filled with rocks to hold it down. The first mention of the ship was in 1979 when a Coast Guard ship found a wooden hull floating free in the channel and carried it back and anchored it to 'the iron ship.' Next to the Accomac was that wood hull just breaking the surface of the water.

During WWII the US Government took over the ferry and loaned it to the British to use between Nova Scotia and Great Britain. In 1952, the ship was refitted with diesel engines and a large 'spoon shaped' bow to handle the loading and off loading of cars and passengers, but in 1964, just 36 years and one day earlier from today, she burned and was taken out of commission.

We now headed east to the back end of the bay. This little area was surrounded by a metal and concrete bulkhead and we gathered up once more for me to relate the story of this little piece of the bay.

After the original salvage company finished up operations in the early 1930s, the bay was packed so tightly with burnt hulks you could barely see any water at all. During the depression people would freely gather up scrap iron from the hulks to squeak out a living, as jobs were scarce. Sometimes 15 - 30 people at a time were seen crawling around the wreckage. As the US entered WWII, the price for scrap iron skyrocketed, and the US commissioned another company to salvage what they could from the bay. The company built the steel and concrete enclosure at the back of the bay with the idea that they would float in some hulls, close the metal doors and pump out the water where they would then burn the hulls and collect the precious scrap.

Unfortunately the bottom was thick with silt, and the hulls sank deep into the goo as they tried to pump it dry. But they did manage to salvage some of the heavy steel directly from the wrecks before it was all over.

We paddled from the burning basin a little more south to look over the only known composite ship in the bay. Built with a wood hull this ship contained metal bulkheads. I had pinched a nerve in my back a few days earlier, so I didn't want to test my endurance even though at the time I was feeling fine. So I headed on back with Craig to the north and Sandy Point passing the scores of wood hulls barely poking above water and the large metal rods poking slightly above the timbers. The others continued south to explore some fossilized cliffs.

While we waited for the others to return I explored inland of the Sentinel looking for the trees and cables to which it was bound. It wasn't long before I found a tree heavily knurled about its base and a thick steel cable wrapped around and through the tree. The cable ran off into the ground back towards the wreck.

Before long the others arrived minus Alice. They asked me where Alice was and with shock I replied that she was supposed to be with them. Alice had turned back early so I began to put on my gear to go look and as we were coordinating a vhf channel to use Alice paddled up from around the point. Not knowing exactly where I had stopped she stopped in the bay and waited until she saw the other group go by and then paddled after them.

As the group ate lunch I told them the final bit of history for this piece of land. In 1963 a small reality company that owned the property around Mallows petitioned the Army Corps of Engineers to remove the hulls from the bay. The reason they sited was that the hulls were depressing property values along the shore. The cost to remove the ships was estimated to be about $300,000, and the recently passed clean waterways act provided for such cleanup if the landowner paid half. The reality company agreed but because a survey of the Potomac watershed was underway, the government wanted to complete the survey before they did anything to the bay. In 1970, PEPCO, the Maryland power company, submitted a permit to build a power plant on Sandy Point. The permit showed that PEPCO had owned the land since 1963! The power company had wanted the hulls removed to make room for their coal barges and had used the reality company to mask the true ownership of the land. Once the Maryland and federal governments got word of the PEPCO scam they quickly shut down any hope of the company getting the hulls removed. And so they still remain for us to marvel over on this day.

We loaded up and headed back for the Virginia side of the river. I was inspired by the great history behind the wrecks - a history that I will tell again someday...