WThunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve is a United States National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Huron's Thunder Bay, within the northeastern region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It protects an estimated 116 historically significant shipwrecks ranging from nineteenth-century wooden side-wheelers to twentieth-century steel-hulled steamers. 7 of the wrecks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
WThe SS Argus was a steel-hulled ship lost on Lake Huron on November 9, 1913 during the Great Lakes storm of 1913. She was carrying a load of coal when she broke in two and sank. She broke in two and sank with the loss of all 25 hands.
WThe SS Asia was a Canadian passenger steamship and package freighter of the Northwestern Transportation Company. She was 41.5 m (136 ft) long and had a beam of 7.11 m (23.3 ft). Launched at St. Catharines, Ontario in 1873, she was built as a canaller, a vessel designed for use in the Welland Canal and other enclosed watercourses of the day. She was converted by her owners for services in the open Great Lakes. Heavily laden and top-heavy with freight, she sank near Lonely Island in Georgian Bay on 14 September 1882 with a loss of 123 lives. The doomed vessel had been fitted with flimsy lifeboats, which repeatedly overturned in the heavy waters. A lifeboat that had originally saved 18 officers and passengers from the foundering Asia then capsized over and over in storm conditions, leading to the deaths of most of the castaways. By the time the one remaining lifeboat made land near Parry Sound, only two passengers remained alive.
WSS Cedarville was a bulk carrier that carried limestone on the Great Lakes in the mid-20th century until it sank after a collision with another ship, MV Topdalsfjord.
WThe SS Charles S. Price was a steel-hulled ship lost on Lake Huron on November 9, 1913 during the Great Lakes storm of 1913.
WSS Choctaw was an American semi-whaleback freighter in service between 1892 and 1915. She was a monitor vessel designed to evade Alexander McDougall's patent on the whaleback vessel design.
WSS Clifton, originally Samuel Mather, was a whaleback lake freighter built in 1892 for service on the Great Lakes. She was 308 foot (94 m) long, 30 foot (9.1 m) beam, and 24 foot (7.3 m) depth, and had a 3,500 ton capacity. The self-propelled barge was built by the American Steel Barge Company in West Superior, Wisconsin. Her builders used a design well-suited to carry iron ore, her intended trade. The new vessel was christened Samuel Mather, after a cofounder of Pickands Mather and Company, which at the time was the second largest fleet on the Great Lakes.
WSS D.R. Hanna was a 552-foot (168 m) long American Great Lakes freighter that operated on the Great Lakes from November 12, 1906 to her sinking on May 16, 1919 after a collision with Quincy A. Shaw. D.R. Hanna was like many other freighters, and was used to haul bulk cargoes such as iron ore, coal and grain.
WSS Daniel J. Morrell was a 603-foot (184 m) Great Lakes freighter that broke up in a strong storm on Lake Huron on 29 November 1966, taking with it 28 of her 29 crewmen. The freighter was used to carry bulk cargoes such as iron ore but was running with only ballast when the 60-year-old ship sank.
WThe Erie Belle was a Great Lakes steam ship that exploded along the eastern shore of Lake Huron in 1883. The rusting remains of the ship's boiler lie on a beach south of Kincardine, Ontario.
WSS Etruria was a steel hulled lake freighter that served on the Great Lakes of North America from her construction in 1902 to her sinking in 1905. On June 18, 1905, while sailing upbound on Lake Huron with a cargo of coal, she was rammed and sunk by the freighter Amasa Stone 10 miles (16 km) off Presque Isle Light. For nearly 106 years the location of Etruria's wreck remained unknown, until the spring of 2011 when her wreck was found upside down in 310 feet (94 m) of water.
WThe F.T. Barney was a 19th-century American schooner that sank in 1868. Her wreck in Lake Huron near Rogers City, Michigan, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
WSS Florida was a wooden hulled Great Lakes freighter that served on the Great Lakes of North America from her construction in 1889, to her sinking in May 1897 when she collided with the larger wooden hulled freighter George W. Roby. Her wreck was located by Ed Ellison in July 1994, in 206 feet (63 m) of water almost completely intact, save for her stern.
WGrecian was a steel bulk freighter built in 1891 by Globe Iron Works at Cleveland, Ohio. She was a sister ship to Norman, also wrecked nearby. The ship was 296 feet (90 m) long, with a beam of 40 feet (12 m) and a gross register tonnage of 2,348 tons.
WThe SS Hydrus was an American steel-hulled Great Lakes bulk freighter, constructed in 1903 and launched as the R.E. Schuck. She was following the SS James Carruthers heading south on Lake Huron while carrying a load of iron ore when she and the Carruthers were caught in the Great Lakes Storm of 1913.
WSS Isaac M. Scott was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 in Lake Huron, 6 to 7 miles northeast of Thunder Bay Island, while she was traveling from Cleveland, Ohio, United States to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States with a cargo of coal.
WThe SS James Carruthers was a Canadian Great Lakes freighter built in 1913. The ship was owned by the St. Lawrence & Chicago Steam and Navigation Company of Toronto, Ontario, with the official registry number 131090.
WSS Jane Miller was a Cargo Ship that sank with the loss of 28 lives near Wiarton, Ontario on Georgian Bay on November 25, 1881. Her wreck was discovered in 2017 resting upright in over 100 feet (30 m) of water.
WSS John A. McGean was a steamship that operated on the Great Lakes in the early 1900s until she sank in the Great Lakes Storm of 1913.
WThe Joseph S. Fay was a wooden steamer built in 1871 Quayle and Martin at Cleveland, Ohio. At the time of launch, the Fay was the largest ship ever built in Cleveland.
WThe SS Kaliyuga was a steamship that sank with the loss of 16 lives on Lake Huron on the night of October 19/20, 1905. The wreck of the Kaliyuga has never been found, and the cause of her sinking remains a mystery.
WThe Kyle Spangler was a wooden schooner; its 1860 wreck site in Lake Huron was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
WThe Metamora was a wooden tug commissioned in 1864 and used predominantly for ferrying passengers and goods in the Georgian Bay area of Ontario. It ran onto a shallow shoal near Turning Island in Georgian Bay on July 30, 1907, caught fire and sank in six feet of water.
WSS Midland City was originally a Canadian side-wheel steamboat that provided passenger and cargo transportation on the Great Lakes from 1871 until 1955. Originally named Maud, then America, she underwent several extensive refits over her 84-year service, and saw several owners. The ship was intentionally run aground and burnt to the waterline in 1955 near the mouth of the Wye River in Midland Bay. The wreck is intact and visible above the water to this day, where it acts as a breakwater for the Wye Heritage Marina and local attraction.
WMonrovia was a 7,067 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1943 by Lithgows Ltd, Glasgow, United Kingdom as Empire Falstaff for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). In 1945, she was transferred to the French Government and renamed Commandant Mantelet. She was sold into merchant service in 1950 and renamed Commandant le Bilboul. In 1954, she was sold to a Liberian company and renamed Monrovia, serving until 1959 when she was in collision with another ship in Lake Huron, United States and sank.
WThe Norman was a bulk freighter; its wreck in Lake Huron was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
WSS Ohio was a wooden hulled Great Lakes freighter that served on the Great Lakes of North America from her construction in 1875, to her sinking in September 1894 when she collided with the schooner barge Ironton which also sank in the collision. Ironton was being towed by the steamer Charles J. Kershaw, which was also towing the schooner Moonlight. Ohio was found upright in 2017, over 122 years after her sinking in over 200 feet of water off Presque Isle, Michigan. Ironton is still missing. The researchers who discovered Ohio plan to nominate her for a listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
WThe SS Pewabic was a package freighter that served ports on the Upper Great Lakes. She was launched in October 1863, fitted out in the spring of 1864, and was in active service until she sank off Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron on August 9, 1865, due to collision with her sister vessel. There was significant loss of life, with a number variously estimated at 100 or 125 passengers and crew of the stricken vessel going down with the ship. If the higher number is accepted, the loss of life made this disaster, in terms of loss of life from the sinking of a single vessel, the seventh-worst tragedy in the history of the Great Lakes, and the worst ever on Lake Huron. The sunken hull of the package freighter is a feature of the present-day Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
WThe SS Regina was a steel canaler built for the Merchant Mutual Line and home ported in Montreal, Quebec. Named after Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina had a tonnage of 1,956 gross register tons (GRT) and a crew of 32.
WSS Russia was an iron-hulled American Great Lakes package freighter that sank in a Lake Huron gale on April 30, 1909, with all 22 of her crew and one passenger surviving.
WFor other ships of this name, see Sweepstake (disambiguation)
WSS Wexford was a steel-hulled, propeller-driven, cargo ship built by William Doxford & Sons. at Sunderland, Great Britain in 1883. The official number for Wexford was 87342 with the hull number 00145. The ship was lost on Lake Huron with all hands on 9 November 1913 during the Great Lakes storm of 1913. Sources cite conflicting numbers for crew lost with 17 to 24 crew being listed. Her cargo at the time of loss was 96,000 bushels of wheat. The wreck was discovered 25 August 2000 sitting intact and upright in 75 feet (23 m) of water on the lake bottom. A copper wreath was placed on the wreck to honor the crew of the 100th Anniversary of The Great Storm of 1913.