Mallows Bay on the eastern shore of the Potomac River in Maryland is home to the largest ship graveyard in the Western hemisphere.

At first glance – and with no sense of scale – this may appear to be a shoal of fish or a group of large aquatic animals. The reality is, however, you’re seeing the remains of between 100 and 200 ships, each the size of a football field, rotting slowly into the mud or being overgrown by vegetation.

During World War 1 the US Government undertook a massive shipbuilding effort – only to see hundreds of ships left idle when the War ended. The Western Marine and Salvage Company bought more than 200 ships at a cut-price rate, hoping to scrap them for their metal, but their plan went quickly astray when fire destroyed some of the ships¹, while others broke loose and sank.

169 ships were eventually towed to Mallows Bay, but after the price of scrap metal fell sharply in the stock market crash of 1929, WM&SC were soon forced into bankruptcy.

Despite several failed attempts to salvage the wrecks over the years, these rusting hulks are still with us today, but it’s evident that the local environment has adapted to accommodate them. They’re home to many species of birds and other wildlife, and the Live Maps view clearly shows that they’ve been overgrown by trees and other vegetation.

The only really identifiable wreck is that of the ferry Accomac, which was likely towed to Mallows Bay after burning in a Portsmouth shipyard in the mid-1960s.

A more detailed history can be found from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources or the Bay Weekly. And this kayak trip report has great pictures.

Thanks to Derek Lindahl and Chas Owens.

Yesterday Google released a major update to Google Earth, adding 3D oceans, a Mars browser and, best of all, historical imagery for much of the globe.

In some places the images go back decades, such as this shot of the Las Vegas strip from July 1950.

When compared with the current view you can see how the strip expanded around the airport, which was in the middle of a barren desert.

Manhattan island also has images for many different years, and going back to April 1994 we can see the World Trade Centre towers.

Although there’s a wealth of new images we’ve never seen before, the update also gives us back lots of great shots that had previously been removed.

Way back in May 2005 we posted a stealth bomber that had been spotted at Edward’s Air Force Base, but later vanished with an image update. Now, by scrolling back to March 15th 2005, the bomber re-appears.

Or, if we keep going back until May 1994 we can see a couple of Blackbirds instead.

We can also revisit one of my favourite sights from the Google Sightseeing archives, the SS American Star.

These days it’s almost completely submerged, but step back through time until 2000 and you’ll see it rise out of the water and right itself.

So, get browsing the archives, and let us know what’s returned!

Yesterday¹ was Australia Day, when each January 26th, Australians crack open some beers and toss another shrimp on the barbie to celebrate their arrival on the world’s smallest continent all the way back in 1788.

Australia has many wonderful things to celebrate, not least in being the location for the claimed best job in the world, which is a post that requires the successful applicant to take up residence on the tropical Hamilton Island, off the Queensland coast.

The job was offered a couple of weeks ago and the story quickly spread round the entire web², as it promises the winning applicant the role of “caretaker” – which basically amounts to a bit of blogging, feeding some fish, and collecting the island’s mail. No formal qualifications are required, but candidates must be willing to swim, snorkel, dive and sail.

For completing these duties, (which amount to 12 hours a month of actual “work”), the successful applicant will receive a salary of A$150,000 ($103,000, £70,000) for six months, and get to live rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool.

It turns out that Hamilton Island is a lot more densely populated³ than the promotional materials would have you believe – meaning that we weren’t able to determine which is the actual villa where the successful applicant will reside – but there’s loads of nice ones to choose from. Infinity pool anyone?

Hamilton Island is the second largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands, and is in fact dedicated almost exclusively to tourism. Anybody fancy some go-karting?

There’s lots of other islands to explore here, including Dent Island where they’re building a golf course, or Whitsunday Island, where on Whitehaven beach we find a couple of seaplanes, a beach party and… is that a helicopter?

Also worth mentioning is Hayman Island, which is home to a resort built by Reg Ansett, which features its own harbor and several helipads. Of course, there are at least 3 swimming pools and even a recursive pool-in-a-pool (on an island).

If you’re thinking that the Whitsunday Islands might be a good place to spend a few months, then you’ve got until the 22nd of February to apply.

Thanks to our Austrian (no, I’ve not misspelled that) correspondent, Al Cohole.

Yes, we’re finally back, and as to be expected, we missed some great Google Earth-related news while we were off.

Firstly the story that seems to have sprung up everywhere is (of course) a Street View one. The garage419 site posted images from a high mountain road in Colorado, where the Google car supposedly took some spy-shots of a fleet of top-secret, as-yet-unreleased Porches!

This is actually the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, which is the highest paved vehicle road in North America, and apparently the only place in the world where car manufacturers can test their vehicles at altitudes of up to 4,306 metres (14,127 feet). Looks like those clever German engineers don’t leave anything to chance, eh?

Next, the Daily Fail tells the story of a “Lost World” discovered with the help of Google Earth. Our satellite sightseeing friends at Kew Gardens spotted an unexpected patch of green forest in the mountains of Mozambique, and when they paid the area a visit, were rewarded with the discovery of a new species of adder, three new species of butterfly, a rarely seen orchid, giant snakes, and colonies of rare birds.

Of course the country’s crappest newspaper failed to include a link to said unspoiled paradise, so it was up to the always reliable Stefan at Ogle Earth to come up with the goods.

Stefan points out that the most interesting thing about the area from up here is that even when viewing it with the enormously comprehensive Geonames.org database loaded, there are still no place names to be seen. Which suggests to us that anyone could find their own undiscovered paradise, simply by looking for places that aren’t marked in Geonames or any of Google Earth’s own databases! Fame and fortune awaits, clearly.

Finally, we come to the story of an American “treasure hunter”, who has gone to court to try to win the right to excavate a sunken ship, which he says he discovered using Google Earth. Mr Nathan Smith reckons the ship ran aground and sank in the mud near the Mission River, Texas, in 1822 while trying to avoid a hurricane. Mr Smith claims that half the crew died during the voyage and those remaining were killed by a local cannibal tribe. He also believes that the ship contains $3 billion in buried treasure¹.

Of course Mr Smith isn’t telling exactly where this sunken treasure is, only that it’s somewhere around here. However sources that have seen the Google Earth image in question describe it as looking “something like a shoe print“, so maybe we could beat him to it!

So, what else did we miss?

Rising from the waters of Oslo Fjord, Norway, is the absolutely incredible Oslo Opera House. Designed to speak of the sheets of ice that formed the fjords of Norway, the huge white slab of angular building could almost be mistaken for an actual ice floe.

Designed by the architects Snøhetta, and opened in April this year, the Opera House features a huge sloping roof that runs past either side of the foyer, tapering all the way down to the water’s edge. Best of all, visitors can climb all over it (possibly thanks to Norway’s refusal to join the fun police – Er, I mean the European Union).

Italian marble and granite account for the striking whiteness of the exterior, but some sections are also clad in aluminium punched with spherical forms, and the interior is awash with dark, sculpted oak.

Unfortunately the Opera House wasn’t completely finished in these satellite images, so it’s worth having a look through this Flickr pool – as the building is truly stunning now that it’s done.

Arcspace.com has a good photo tour of the whole building, The Times did a story about the launch event, and there’s more at Wikipedia of course.

Thanks to James McKay.