AH-WR-0541

Fort Stevens

Cargo Steamship · United States · Lost Early-to-mid 1920s, part of the mass scrapping and abandonment of the 'Ghost Fleet' · Chesapeake Bay

One of the WWI 'Ghost Fleet' wooden steamships left to rot in Mallows Bay after the war ended before it ever saw wartime cargo service.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Fort Stevens was one of nearly 200 wooden steamships rushed into construction under the Emergency Fleet Corporation's World War I shipbuilding program. Built too late for wartime service, it was declared surplus, sold to a scrapping company, and towed to Mallows Bay on the Potomac River. There it was stripped of metal fittings and abandoned, becoming part of the so-called Ghost Fleet. Its wooden hull remains are now part of a nationally significant shipwreck concentration.

Vessel

Built: 1919
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: 281 ft
Beam: 46 ft
Tonnage: 3500
Propulsion: Steam, single screw
Owners: U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation

Loss

Date: Early-to-mid 1920s, part of the mass scrapping and abandonment of the 'Ghost Fleet'
Cause: Intentional sinking
Location: Mallows Bay, Potomac River, Maryland
Water: Potomac River / Chesapeake Bay
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established