Life Thrives on Maryland’s ‘Ghost Fleet’ of WWI-Era Shipwrecks
Nearly 100 years ago dozens of ships were abandoned in a shallow bay in the Potomac River. Today plants and animals are thriving on the skeletons of these vessels
Wrecks near the coast in Mallows Bay are becoming islands, providing novel, human-influenced habitats for a variety of terrestrial and aquatic species.
In 1929 the Western Marine & Salvage Company moved a fleet of 169 World War I–era steamships to Mallows Bay, a shallow inlet in the Potomac River, where they were burned to make any salvageable materials easier to reach. Over time, a few ships were buried under the sediment while others floated away. Today the skeletons of 147 vessels—known as the “Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay”—have , drone images reveal.
Grounded US Emergency Fleet vessels were burned to the waterline throughout multiple salvage periods at Mallows Bay in order to ease the recovery of their scrap metal.
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Novel, human-influenced habitats form where the wrecks of the “Ghost Fleet” meet. Here, the Alpaco and Buckhorn rest end-to-end.
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, which runs into the Atlantic Ocean. When high tides arrive, water brings silt into the bay. Then, as the tide goes out, the silt settles on the ship structures. Over decades, soil accumulates, and birds or small mammals drop off seeds. “It’s like this positive spiral, right?” Johnston says. “You create a structure, animals make use of it, and in doing so, they bring seeds of other plants, which then grow.”
When Johnston and his colleagues at the Duke University Marine Lab received National Science Foundation funding to build a drone center to study coastal ecosystems, they sought a new local coast to investigate. While looking for one on Google Earth, they stumbled on a weird pattern in the Potomac. As they zoomed in, dozens of shipwrecks appeared. They had found their spot.
Composite image, or orthomosaic, of the wreck of Benzonia in the “Ghost Fleet” of Mallows Bay, lying partially on top of the wreck of Caribou.
Composite image of the entire “Ghost Fleet” of Mallows Bay, with individual wrecks labelled.
“We are stoked that we could map the wrecks using drones and have those efforts support the designation of the marine sanctuary—we had an impact!” Johnston says. Through this project, the team has established a baseline to study how the ghost fleets react to the ongoing effects of sea-level rise and increased storminess, he adds, as well as “how each shipwreck evolves in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem function midst a rapidly changing world.”
The ecological study is one of several comparable research projects being undertaken in the sanctuary that, cumulatively, will provide useful data for everyone interested in the region, says Susan Langley, who spent 31 years as Maryland’s state underwater archaeologist before her recent retirement.
The historic shipwrecks of Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary provide habitat for birds and other wildlife.
Vedenin notes that there might be even more life under the surface. “Underwater close-ups would probably reveal a huge diversity of epifauna [seafloor wildlife] living on the remnants of the ships,” he adds. “That might be an idea for future research if that has not been done yet.”
Everything in the ocean is looking for an address—a place to be, Johnston says, echoing advice he received from the late Dick Barber, a longtime ocean biogeochemist, who was on Johnston’s dissertation committee. The physical structure of shipwrecks can give marine creatures that address they’re looking for, he adds.
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