{"id":20340,"date":"2019-06-21T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=20340"},"modified":"2019-06-24T14:27:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T21:27:26","slug":"the-ghost-ships-of-mallows-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2019\/06\/21\/the-ghost-ships-of-mallows-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ghost Ships of Mallows Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Potomac River has a long established history in the Mid-Atlantic, especially among paddlers in the greater Washington D.C. area. Seasoned whitewater paddlers can take on rapids in Great Falls Park, city dwellers and tour groups can cruise by the banks of Georgetown, Watergate, the Lincoln Memorial, or navigate farther downstream through the brackish waters near the Chesapeake Bay. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Potomac River is truly a “pick your own adventure” kind of waterway, which brings us to a small patch of water, 30 miles downriver from metro D.C. Here you’ll find the most unexpected sight of human engineering, a forgotten history that nature is slowly reclaiming. The Ghost Ships of Mallows Bay.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As a stand-up paddleboarder, I enjoy flat water, white water, and ocean surf. I’m stoked to simply dink around in my local pond; it’s really just about getting on the water in my book. Because of this, I like to find unique waterways to paddle near places I travel through frequently. This is how Mallows Bay made it on my radar, and ultimately how I ended up filming this unique sight for the Amazon Prime Video series I host and produce: AWOL – Air Water Or Land<\/a>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Potomac Rivers cuts right through Charles County, Maryland, creating a natural border with Virginia. Once you arrive at Mallows Bay Park, you get your first glimpse of several ship-like silhouettes only a couple thousand feet from the parking lot. Within this bay lie hundreds of World War I merchant ships run aground into a shallow grave, perfect for paddling around.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Typically, I would explore this area alone, but since AWOL is part-adventure series, part-travel series, the owner of a nearby kayaking tour company,<\/span> Kim DeMarr, guides us through this garden of shipwrecks<\/span>. This actually worked out even better than I expected. Kim, a former employee for the previous owner of the guide company, purchased the business with her husband in 2018. She’s filled with far more knowledge than any internet search could ever muster up. <\/span><\/p>\n

As we paddle our kayaks out into a slight headwind, Kim begins to point out all of the history lying under the tideline. She points out the most noticeable ship from the shore is the S.S. Accomac, a car ferry used to transport people and cars across the Chesapeake Bay from the Virginia Beach area prior to the completion of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. A crew later sailed it upriver sometime in the 1980s and run aground with zero worries of legal consequence. A\u2014now outdated\u2014gray area in the law allowed scuttling of ships along the Potomac. <\/span><\/p>\n