The United States Shipping Board Fleet at Mallows Bay, Maryland: Inventory and Assessment

Abstract

In the spring of 1917, upon the entry of the United States as a major combatant in the First World War, the nation commenced the largest and most ambitious shipbuilding program in history till that date. To counter Allied maritime losses imposed by the German submarine offensive, a goal was adopted to field 6,000,000 tons of merchant shipping, including 255,000 wooden steamships, in 18 months. To meet this goal, the U.S. Shipping Board created the Emergency Fleet Corporation to manage production. Despite a chaos-plagued program, by August 1920 a final total of 285 wooden steamers had been delivered. Few found employment, and most were sold at auction in 1922 to the Western Marine and Salvage Corporation for reduction and salvage of the metals. During the next year, 218 vessels were brought to the Potomac River, 169 of which would eventually come to rest in the shallow waters of Mallows Bay. From 1923 through the end of the Second World War, various corporate regimes and independent salvors would attempt the recovery of metals from the hulks, in the process severely altering the terrestrial and marine landscape. Between 1986 and 1998 an archaeological evaluation of the historic resource base at Mallows Bay was carried out. This chapter discusses the history of the U.S. Shipping Board’s wooden shipbuilding program, the salvage efforts on those vessels brought to the Potomac River, and the archaeological evaluation of the cultural resource base of Mallows Bay and its environs as they exist today.