Submerged NC Webinar Series
This webinar series presented by Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in collaboration with the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology highlights research conducted for over 45 years to honor and protect the hallmarks of North Carolina's underwater cultural heritage - shipwrecks. Join us each month as scientists and educators present a look into the unique underwater museum and memorials to generations of mariners who lived, worked, died, and fought off our shores.
The Wooden Bridge to France: The Life of One of the Mallows Bay Ghost Fleet Vessels
August 20, 2024 at 7 am Hawaii / 10 am Pacific / 12 pm Central / 1 pm Eastern
Join Allyson Ropp, a maritime archaeologist and a Ph.D. candidate at East Carolina University, to learn about one of the 100 abandoned World War I vessels in Mallows Bay. Mallows Bay, within the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary, hosts one of the largest ghost fleets in the Western Hemisphere, which holds stories to the United States’ shipping efforts during World War I.
The United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation built a thousand wooden steamships to “build a bridge to France.” While many of these vessels failed to sail the seas, one in the bay, Aowa, defied the odds and sailed. This presentation tells the story of Aowa and its life from conception with the wooden shipbuilding program to its final abandonment in Mallows Bay. It further discusses the research project underway on Aowa to understand the stability and preservation of the shipwreck.