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Mono

Aerial drone photographic mosaic of Mallows Bay, Maryland. Location of Mono is circled in red. (Source: Duke University/NOAA).
Aerial drone photographic mosaic of Mallows Bay, Maryland. Location of Mono is circled in red. (Source: Duke University/NOAA).

Ship Stats

State ID: 18CH550

Vessel Type: Merchant vessel (steamship)

Location: 38°28'23.95"N, 77°16'13.94"W (38.47332, -77.27054) (38.47440, -77.26677) (Duke University, 2016)

Length: 289 feet

Breadth: Not determined

Deadweight Tonnage: 3,500

Builder: Fulton Shipbuilding Company, Washington, California

Owner: Titled to the State of Maryland under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act

Flora & Fauna: None

Significance: United States Shipping Board vessel built for World War I effort

Wreck Site

On The Job For Victory poster showing a panoramic view of a busy shipyard
"On The Job For Victory" poster showing a panoramic view of a busy shipyard, 1917, by United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation. (Source: Library of Congress).

Mono, a double screw Hough-type steamship, lies in six feet of water resting on its keel and entirely submerged except for the forepeak. The vessel sits in an east by west orientation with its bow at the east, directed toward the shore. Surveys recorded the round stern and the presence of ferrous fastenings, two bulkhead foundations, and the stempost. The hull has been in its present location since at least 1929.

Historical Background

Poster: The Tidal Wave, July 4, 1918, 95 ships launched by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation.
"The Tidal Wave," July 4, 1918, 95 ships launched by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation. Poster by Thomsen-Ellis Co., New York. (Source: Library of Congress).

Mono was built in 1918, by the Fulton Shipbuilding Company, Washington, California, for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). Mono was a Hough-type built vessel, differing from the majority of Ferris-type vessels that were built for the war effort. Edward S. Hough, a San Francisco naval architect devised a vessel design that was intended to be a maximum cargo carrier of simplest construction and was far more adaptable to the use of young, yellow pine lumber than was the Ferris-type ship. Due to resource constraints, no fewer than eight basic wooden vessel types and one composite vessel type were utilized to produce the wooden emergency fleet vessels. Additionally, Hough-type built vessels had a second propeller, as opposed to a single propeller of the Ferris-type vessels.

Mono was among the 95 USSB steamships in the celebrated "Tidal Wave" of national ships launching on July 4, 1918. On this date, close to 100 vessels launched from shipyards all across the United States, marking the greatest ship-launching day in history.