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Mallows Bay

I was going to write a quick post saying that I paddled to Mallows Bay again, and just hyper-link "again" to the previous post. Done. But then I searched through the blog and realized that there was no entry about Mallows Bay! I pulled out my old kayaking journal from the dawn of kayaking time - y'know, the kind written on actual paper? - and realized I had written about my first trip to Mallows Bay in September of 2000. I've been back a number of times since, but I guess I never wrote about it.
Rob and Larry examine the remains of the S,S. Accomac (ferry)

Anyway, I'll keep this brief anyway. Mallows Bay is home to over 100 scuttled ships and is a classic story of Defense procurement gone bad. During World War I the U.S. found itself with a shortage of transport ships to bring people and materiel over to Europe. The government placed an order for a whopping 1,000 ships for the war effort. To make a long story short, few of the ships were ever built, fewer still in time to be put into service in the war. The ships were hastily built and had wooden hulls (steel was too expensive during the war). They were consequently so heavy that they had to use most of their own cargo space for coal. Needless to say, at the end of the war they were immediately declared obsolete and were sold off to a company as scrap. The company scuttled them in Mallows Bay, and today they, alongside other ships scuttled there at other times, form an eerie ship graveyard and cool wildlife sanctuary. More on the history here.

We launched out of Quantico, paddled across the river and down the Maryland shore to the bay. We took a break at the (fairly new) Mallows Bay launch, where the very friendly (lonely?) caretaker talked with us for a good long time and we ran into a kayak fisherman who bow hunts snakehead fish!

Well, since I've written about Mallows Bay before :) I'll stop here. Pictures below.

Cool 360 degree shots:


On Mallows Bay by the Car Ferry - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA


Regular old pictures:

Exposed spine of a ship
Up on a bluff looking at the ships

That foliage is growing on the outlines of ships

A plastic boat is a good idea here!


Shore break

First break, checking out a ship above the bay

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Location: Mallows Bay, Nanjemoy, MD 20640, USA

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