How many ships have sunk on Lake Erie?

Lake Erie has an astonishing 2,000-plus shipwrecks which is among the highest concentration of shipwrecks in the world. Only about 400 of Lake Erie's wrecks have ever been found. There are schooners, freighters, steamships, tugs and fishing boats among them.



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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.

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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.

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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.

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“In fact, we think Lake Erie has a greater density of shipwrecks than virtually anywhere else in the world—even the Bermuda triangle.” Because of incomplete record keeping, nobody knows the exact number of shipwrecks that have occurred in Lake Erie, but estimates range from 500 to 2000.

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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.

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The British pirates led by George Colby attacked from shore in small boats. They would build fires at night on the shore of Lake Erie to lead the French to think they were near a port causing them to run aground on the rocks.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Currents in Lake Erie can be dangerous! Any current flowing faster than 2 mph is considered dangerous. Dangerous currents can exceed 5 mph — faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim.

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Edmund Fitzgerald, official number 277437, sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975 with loss of life.” While the Coast Guard said the cause of the sinking could not be conclusively determined, it maintained that “the most probable cause of the sinking of the S.S.

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Queen of the Lakes is the unofficial but widely recognized title given to the longest vessel active on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada. A number of vessels, mostly lake freighters, have been known by the title.

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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.

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