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Namecki

Vessel Namecki displaying dazzle paint (camouflage)
Vessel Namecki displaying dazzle paint (camouflage), 1918. Dazzle paint was used in an effort to confuse the enemy by attempting to disguise the speed and heading (direction) of the vessel. (Source: Courtesy of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, Special Collections).

Ship Stats

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

State ID: 18CH553

Vessel Type: Merchant vessel (steamship)

Location: 38°28'21.14"N, 77°16'12.14"W (38.47254, -77.27004) (Duke University, 2016)

Length: 281 feet 10 inches

Breadth: 45 feet 2 inches

Deadweight Tonnage: 3,500

Builder: Tampa Dock Company, Tampa, Florida

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

Close up view of Namecki, using drone image mosaic
Close up view of Namecki, using drone image mosaic taken by Duke University. (Source: Duke University/NOAA).

The remains of Namecki are resting on its keel and entirely submerged. The vessel sits in an east to west orientation, with the bow facing toward the shoreline. The vessel has been in its present location since 1929 (Marx and Shomette 2015).

Historical Background

Namecki was built in 1918, by the Tampa Dock Company of Tampa, Florida, for the United States Shipping Board. Namecki was the first Ferris-type ship completed at the Tampa Dock and the first completed on the Atlantic Coast. Ferris-type wooden cargo vessels are named so due to the selected design by Theodore E. Ferris, a senior architect for the United States Shipping Board. Ferris's idea was to standardize these emergency ships with similar designs that could be built at yards all across the United States. Each Ferris-type ship measured approximately the same, 282 feet long, and grossing 3,500 deadweight tons.

Four of these Ferris-type vessels were built at the Tampa Dock Company, including Namecki. The vessel underwent sea trials on August 7, 1918, and following this, Namecki went to Jacksonville, Florida, which became its home port. Namecki made at least one trans-Atlantic crossing to France in 1920, but following its return, was laid up in the James River, Virginia, sometime between 1920 and 1922. Eventually, Namecki was sold to the Western Marine and Salvage Company, moved to Mallows Bay, Maryland, and stripped of all engine and metal parts (Marx and Shomette 2015; Fuss 2021: 48-51).

Type 10 Design M port side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel
Type 10 Design M port side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel. Length of vessel 281 feet, 6 inches. Print number 66. (Source: Courtesy of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, Special Collections).
Type 10 Design K port side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel.
Type 10 Design K port side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel. Length of vessel 281 feet, 6 inches. Print number 69. (Source: Courtesy of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, Special Collections).
Type 10 Design M starboard side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel.
Type 10 Design M starboard side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel. Length of vessel 281 feet, 6 inches. Print number 80. (Source: Courtesy of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, Special Collections).
Type 10 Design K starboard side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel.
Type 10 Design K starboard side dazzle paint (camouflage) for standard, wooden 3,500 ton vessel. Length of vessel 281 feet, 6 inches. Print number 77. (Source: Courtesy of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, Special Collections).