List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes, a collection of five freshwater lakes located in North America, have been sailed upon since at least the 17th century, and thousands of ships have been sunk while traversing them. Many of these ships were never found, so the exact number of shipwrecks in the Lakes is unknown; the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum estimates 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost, while historian and mariner Mark Thompson has estimated that the total number of wrecks is likely more than 25,000. In the period between 1816, when the Invincible was lost, to the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, the Whitefish Point area alone has claimed at least 240 ships.

Lake Superior

Lake Huron

Lake Michigan

Lake Erie

Lake Ontario

Largest wrecks

See also

• Graveyard of the Great Lakes
• List of Great Lakes shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places

References

External links

• The Great Lakes Shipwreck File, a list maintained by David D. Swayze which details over 4,900 shipwrecks. (Archived by the Wayback Machine.)
• Great Lakes Hold Fortune in Treasure , Port Light, Volume 3, Number 43, Door County, Wisconsin, November 15, 1945, page 3

Further reading

• Thumbnail histories, descriptions and locations of more than 1,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks located to date.
• . A guide to hundreds of northern Lake Michigan shipwrecks.
• Detailed stories of 100 significant shipwrecks, plus, in appendices, brief information about several hundreds more.
• Detailed stories of 100 significant shipwrecks, plus, in appendices, brief information about several hundreds more.
• Identifies 110 wreck locations.
• Identifies 103 wreck locations.
• Identifies 45 wreck locations.