Are there ships at the bottom of Lake Erie?

Our Great Lake holds the remains of hundreds of vessels that disappeared beneath its surface.



People Also Ask

A 119-year-old shipwreck has been found at the bottom of Lake Erie. The wooden steam barge Margaret Olwill sank in 50 feet of water during a nor'ester in 1899. Eight people died, including the captain, his wife and their 9-year-old son.

MORE DETAILS

With an average depth of just 24 feet (7 meters), this area is especially hazardous to ships because it features several rocky outcrops, shoals, and islands. (Lake Erie's average depth is 60 feet; Lake Superior's average depth is 149 feet.)

MORE DETAILS

An estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with approximately 1,500 of these ships located in Michigan waters. These are unique resources. The history of Michigan can be traced by the material records of its shipwrecks. They are a wood and steel chronicle of the history of naval architecture on the lakes.

MORE DETAILS

The Chesapeake // Lake Erie. The Chesapeake was carrying about 45 passengers when it collided with another ship and began to slowly sink in August 1846.

MORE DETAILS

The SS G. P. Griffith was a passenger steamer that burned and sank on Lake Erie on 17 June 1850, resulting in the loss of between 241 and 289 lives.

MORE DETAILS

The Erie region boasts over 20 known wrecks ranging in depth from 10 to 130 feet for all levels of diving experience. Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes yet it boasts some of the fiercest weather.

MORE DETAILS

The SS Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 was a train ferry that sank with the loss of between 30 and 38 lives on Lake Erie on December 8, 1909.

MORE DETAILS

But investigating that spot alone would require a year or two of searching. Fair warning: Mike Wachter says anyone who tries to find the M&B shouldn't do it for the gold. “Like most ships on the bottom of Lake Erie, there is no treasure,” he says. “The only real treasure is the stories and the history.”

MORE DETAILS

In northeastern Ohio and Michigan folklore, Bessie is a name given to a lake monster in Lake Erie, also known as South Bay Bessie or simply The Lake Erie Monster.

MORE DETAILS

During the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared a “dead lake” due to eutrophication and pollution. The children's book, The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss, actually included the following line referring to fish: “They will walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary.

MORE DETAILS

Lake Erie is the second smallest Great Lake by surface area, and the smallest by volume. Because of this, the water of Lake Erie also has the shortest residence time. Water in this lake replaces itself every 2.6 years, as opposed to Lake Superior, which takes two centuries.

MORE DETAILS

The Lake Serpent was built in Cleveland in 1821. The Lake Serpent carried cargo for eight years until it sank in late September or early October 1829.

MORE DETAILS

Of course, the most famous Great Lakes shipwreck was that of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, with none of the 29 members of its crew surviving the waters of Lake Superior. And the most deadly event was the 1958 sinking of the Carl Bradley in Lake Michigan, claiming the lives of all but two of 35 shipmates onboard.

MORE DETAILS

MV Paul R. Tregurtha is the largest boat on the lakes, at 1,013 feet 6 inches (308.91 m) and capable of loading 68,000 tons of bulk cargo.

MORE DETAILS

Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest average water residence time. At its deepest point Lake Erie is 210 feet deep.



MORE DETAILS

Lake Superior is the world's largest freshwater lake by area (31,700 mi2 /82,100 km2). It is also the coldest and deepest of the Great Lakes, with a maximum depth of 406 meters (1,332 feet). By most measures, it is the healthiest of all the Great Lakes.

MORE DETAILS

With an average depth of just 62 feet and a maximum depth of 210 feet, the wrecks of schooners, barges, tugs and sidewheel steamers are mostly accessible to SCUBA divers. How did you get involved in Lake Erie shipwreck diving?

MORE DETAILS

It is estimated that over 2,000 ships have been lost in Lake Erie; nearly 600 are believed to be in Ohio waters. To help document Ohio's maritime heritage, the State Historic Preservation Office created an inventory form that focuses on the specific details of a ship's character.

MORE DETAILS