Maryland Historical Society

At present Maryland has one historic shipwreck preserve with a second, Mallows Bay, in the acquisition and planning stages, and others are being considered at Historic St. Mary’s City and Point Lookout (Figure 1). The first features a single resource, the German submarine U-1105; the second encompasses more than one hundred thirty wooden ships, most dating to World War I; and the others consider both maritime and once-terrestrial remains adjacent to Maryland’s first formal settlement (founded in 1634) and an eroded Civil War prisoner of war camp and hospital at the mouth of the Potomac River. This chapter focuses largely on the extant preserve, its creation, and the general response to it, as well as problems encountered past and present, and possible solutions to these. Comparable discussion for the other planned preserves follows.