Great Lakes Shipwrecks (1679 – 2005)
Welcome to Jack Grobe’s Shipwreck Data Analysis Project (1679 – 2005). In this project, I have set about cataloging information about shipwrecks in the North American Great Lakes. Below you can find maps and various data visualizations about these wrecks, along with descriptions with hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles for further context.
INTRODUCTION
Terminology
For the purposes of my dataset, a shipwreck is a vessel that has experienced an incident that has placed it out of commission. Because of the incident logged within, the vessel never sailed on its own again. This can mean the ship was sunk, or damaged beyond ability to repair and return to service.
The wreck entries can take four forms: discovered wrecks, removed wrecks, undiscovered wrecks, and unidentified wrecks. The first are wrecks on the bottom, paired with a ship name and history (think RMS Titanic). The second are wrecks which occurred, but the wreck was later moved and disposed of (SS Noronic). The third are ships which are known to have sunk, but for which a wreck has not yet been located (SS Baychimo). The final one are hulks or wrecks discovered, which have not been positively identified (think random hulk). This database includes wrecks above thirty feet, concentrating on commercial wrecks or wrecks of historical significance.
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Limitations and Future
Despite the amount of time spent on this project (16 years!), it is not yet complete. Estimates place the number of North American Great Lakes Shipwrecks at 3,000 – 10,000. For this list, I have managed to catalogue about 2,100 wrecks. As this project continues, I will continue to add more wrecks into the database.
I am also in the process of cleaning and checking information already present in the database. My goal is to have all my imputed wrecks crosschecked with my three online sources: the David Swayze Shipwreck File on Boatnerd.com, the Gerald Metzler Great Lakes Vessel Database through the Wisconsin Maritime Museum at Manitowoc, and the Great Lakes Vessel Online Index through Bowling Green State University, as well as with the latest copy of Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg’s Diving Guide (Recent Discoveries and Updates).
Following the addition of missing wrecks and the data cleaning, I want to add in accompanying data about the emergence of lighthouses, lifesaving stations, and the emergence of new technologies on the Lakes. I have tried to find data about overall tonnage on the Lakes or general shipping, but I have as yet not been able to find information that is not about the last two decades.
As such, the conclusions I have come to, though based on thousands of datapoints, are tentative and incomplete.
THE LOSSES
Shipwreck Loss Sites
This map shows shipwreck loss sites as organized by decade from the 1670s to the 2000s. The dots are color coded either green or red for whether the location of the wreck itself is known (green) or unknown (red). Show History can be toggled on to give a cumulative effect of the buildup of wrecks over time.
Loss by Lake
Most of the early wrecks (pre-1860) are concentrated on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. In the 1830s and 1840s, wrecks increase on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. This can be ascribed to the increase in population in the state of Michigan, the state of Wisconsin, and in the city of Chicago. Lake Superior’s wrecks slightly increase in the 1860s, before expanding in the 1880s. This corresponds to the opening of the Iron Range in Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Loss Conclusions
Perhaps one of the more surprising finds of this project is the fearsomeness of Lake Erie. Traditionally, it is Lake Superior which is known as the deadliest and most treacherous of the Lakes. However, never in terms of number of losses does Superior claim more than 20% of the overall wrecks except in the 1970s and, even then, it is tied with the St. Lawrence River.
From the overall ship loss numbers, it is apparent that the more heavily trafficked of the Lakes (Erie, Michigan, and Huron) experienced the higher numbers of wrecks (given the lack of formal information, my sense of lake traffic is informed by anecdotal primary evidence). As commercial trade moved west and the Lakes were opened up, traffic fell on Lake Ontario. The opening of the Erie Canal meant the bypassing of Lake Ontario, which before 1830 was the commercial centre of the Lakes. Hubs like Kingston and Oswego were replaced in importance by Buffalo and Cleveland. From 1790-1880 and from 1930-2000, Lake Erie is responsible for a disproportionate amount of wrecks in no small part due to the amount of traffic that plied its waters. A future might be to figure out the reason for that sixty-year gap in the middle. Another interesting note is the that the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway (responsible for a gap in wrecks on the St. Lawrence River in the 1950s) did not appear to translate (in the short term at least) into fewer wrecks. In fact, the increased traffic of the Seaway seems to have guaranteed the opposite, especially in the 1970s.
DEATH TOLL
Major Loss Map
This map shows the location of major deadly shipwrecks (more than 10 lives lost). The dots representing the wrecks are color coded along a gold to red spectrum with the redder the dot meaning the deadlier the wreck.
Loss by Lake
In terms of lives lost, Lake Superior proves a deadlier lake than its overall number of wrecks would suggest, with particularly disproportionate losses from 1900-1930. However, it is not the deadliest lake. Lake Erie claimed a large number of overall Lakes deaths before 1860, with Lake Michigan and Lake Huron responsible for most deaths between 1860 and 1930. Two deadly wrecks on the St. Lawrence in the 1930s and one massive wreck on Lake Ontario in the 1949, skew the data for those decades. For the 1950s and ‘60s, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron return to being the deadliest lakes. As the number of deaths overall on the Lakes drops, the percents become easier to skew. In the 1970s, the deadly sinkings of the SS Eastcliffe Hall on the St. Lawrence (9 dead) and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior (29 dead) mean those two bodies are the deadliest. While in the 1980s and 1990s, a series of deadly tugboat sinkings on Lake Erie return it as deadliest lake. The last deadly wreck on the Lakes, was the 2000 sinking of the M/V True North II on Lake Huron. This chart below includes all deadly wrecks.
Deadliness of Wrecks
Given the skew between overall losses and lives lost by individual lake or river on the Great Lakes, I hypothesised that most of the shipwrecks on the Great Lakes are not deadly, which I confirmed with a data chart. From the 1840s onwards, most shipwrecks on the Great Lakes were not deadly. The data for the 1940s jumps because as the overall numbers of wrecks were falling, one wreck (SS Noronic) occurred with over 100 lives lost. Similarly, given the few numbers of wrecks around 2000, the sinking of the M/V True North II has a disproportionate effect on the data.
Overall Lives Lost by Year
Finally, I made a chart to illustrate the overall numbers of lives lost, this time color coded to nationality. Given that I could not track down the nationality of each individual sailor lost, losses are coded to the nationality of the ship they were on (i.e. lives lost on an American ship are counted as Americans). In this way, the difference between individual wrecks and overall trends can be seen. When both American and Canadian lives lost rise, this can be attributed to transnational forces like the weather. However, when only one country rises, it is more due to individual wrecks.
In this way, American losses for 1841, 1847, 1849, 1850, 1852, and 1860 can be explained as due specifically to high losses on individual ships and issues with new technologies: i.e. fires caused by early steam engines. Similarly, the 1949 spike can be explained by the SS Noronic fire in Toronto harbor. However, transnationally corresponding spikes in 1856, 1882, 1905, and 1913 are due to weather events. The largest spike for 1913, is due to the White Hurricane.
Loss Conclusions
The history of human losses on the Great Lakes can be divided into roughly four eras with the deadlier wrecks on the Lakes occurred earlier on in the history of lake shipping. Before the War of 1812 is the Imperial period of losses. The earliest wrecks like the Le Griffon, HMS Ontario, and HMS Speedy were imperial vessels lost in storms with all hands. This was the typical characterization of a shipwreck in this period: French or British and lost with all hands in a storm. From around 1830 to 1870 came the deadliest period of Great Lakes losses: the Immigration period. Most of these lives lost were passengers, typically German and Scandinavian immigrants onboard American vessels going west. This spike was mainly on Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron. These steamers were overloaded, equipped with few safety precautions, and fitted with early steam engines that were prone to fire or explosion. From 1870 to 1970, came the Cargo period. Ships in this period mainly carried freight cargos and losses were mainly of professional sailors engaged in their workplace. Losses in this period were typically commercial vessels in storms. The main example of this is the White Hurricane of 1913. Finally, post-1970 is the Service period. Apart from the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, losses in this time are few, infrequently fatal, and mainly occurring on smaller ships like tugboats.
MANNER OF LOSS
Wrecks by Manner of Loss
The following chart shows Manner of Sinking for ships by their overall percent for that decade. Abandoned and Scuttled refer to ships that were either allowed to be destroyed through disuse and lack of care or through intentional destruction by the owners. Burned and exploded are self-evident. Capsized means the vessel was overturned and lost without the structural integrity of the hull being breached. Collision refers to a collision with another ship. Ice means an iceberg punctured the hull of the ship. Unknown means either records are unclear or the ship went missing. Stranded means the ship struck an underwater obstruction of some kind. Wrecked means the ship was thrown up on shore. Foundered means a storm or age breached the structural integrity of the ship and water leaked in.
What is notable here is how late some manners of sinking persisted. Some 20 years after the RMS Titanic, ships on the Great Lakes were still being sunk by iceberg. Similarly, the advent of new technologies like radar and radio failed to prevent ship-to-ship collisions as late as the 1980s. Underwater obstructions and foundering in storms are perils on the Lakes throughout time.
Lives Lost
Storms are the primary reason for lives lost in shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. However, between 1840-70, during the Immigrant period, as shown below, fires onboard and collisions between overcrowded steamers took many lives.
SHIP CONSTRUCTION
Build Site Map
Although this project is focused on shipwrecks, I do not just want to focus on the moment of their sinking. Below can be seen a map of shipwreck build sites organized by decade of construction (as opposed to decade of sinking used in the above charts and maps). The map is color coded: blue for American built ships, red for ships built in Canada, green for Europe, and yellow for Asia. What can be gleaned from this is that most vessels that sank on the Great Lakes were built on the American side of the Great Lakes, particularly on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
Hull Material
In the following chart, the material of the shipwreck hull can be seen. The chart is organized by half decade of construction, showing the preferred building material. In it, the rapid expansion in the construction of steel ships after 1900 can be seen.
Fuel and Propulsion at Sinking
In the following chart, the type of fuel used by the shipwreck at the time of its sinking can be seen. One of the more interesting things is how despite making up so few of the ship constructed, ships powered by fossil fuels made up a much larger percent of shipwrecks between 1820 and 1860.
This is further confirmed by a breakdown in propulsion types. Early steam engines powered wheels used to propel ships forward. Although few were constructed for the Lakes, they made up a disproportionate amount of wrecks
AGE
Overall
Below is a chart showing the age of shipwrecks at point of sinking. As can be seen, more ships sank earlier in their careers than later.
Aging Fleets
Below is a series of grouped charts showing the distribution of different wrecks over time, grouped by age. Although there is a lot of information, one general trend is clear. As time has gone on, the average age of Great Lakes shipwrecks (and thereby Great Lakes fleets) has gone up. Commercial ships on the Lakes get older with time as do the losses.
Age and Deadliness
Finally, these charts demonstrate the deadliness of shipwrecks by age. This examination is broken into two parts: 19th century and 20th century. As can be seen, in the 19th century, newer ships tend to experience the more deadly accidents, due to new steamers with early steam engines being used to transport large amounts of passengers. For the 20th century, deadlier shipwrecks tend to occur on older ships, which is consistent with the aging of the Great Lakes Lake Fleet.
WORKS CITED
Data Sources
Couch, Skip, and Don Martin. Divers Guide to the Upper St. Lawrence River: The Best Fresh Water Scuba Diving in the World. Canada: Henderson Printing Inc., 2012.
Couch, Skip, and Dennis McCarthy. Skip’s Divers Guide to Cape Vincent and Clayton. Clayton, New York: Blue Ledge Systems, Inc., 2009.
Couch, Skip, and Dennis McCarthy. Skip’s Divers Guide to the Narrows and Alex Bay. Clayton, New York: Blue Ledge Systems, Inc., 2009.
Kohl, Cris. The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks: Volume 1. Hong Kong: Seawolf Communications Inc., 1998.
Kohl, Cris. The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks: Volume 2. Hong Kong: Seawolf Communications Inc., 1998.
Kohl, Cris. The Great Lakes Diving Guide. Chicago, Ill: Seawolf Communications Inc., 2001.
Lewis, Walter. Maritime History of the Great Lakes. “Collection Search”. 2005. http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/search
McCarthy, Dennis, Kathi McCarthy, and Skip Couch. Dive the Thousand Islands. Clayton, New York: Blue Ledge Systems, Inc., 2012.
Metzler, Gerald. “Great Lakes Vessel Database”. 2019. http://www.greatlakesvessels.org/en-us/intro.aspx
Save Ontario Shipwrecks. “Buoy Sites”. 2018. https://saveontarioshipwrecks.ca/buoy-program/buoy-site-list/
Shipwreck World. “Articles” and “Wreck Finder”. 2019. http://www.shipwreckworld.com/
Swayze, David. “The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes Ships 1679 – 1999”. 2001. http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/
Wikipedia.org
Consulted Works
Barry, James P. Wrecks and Rescues of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1981.
Bowen, Dana Thomas. Shipwrecks of the Lakes: Told in Story and Picture. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1952.
Boyer, Dwight. Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1968.
Boyer, Dwight. True Tales of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1971.
Brown, David G. White Hurricane: A Great Lakes November Gale and America’s Deadliest Maritime Disaster. New York: Barnes & Noble Publishing, 2002.
Greenwood, John O. Namesakes 1900-1909: An Era Begins. Vol. 10. 18 vols. Namesakes. New York: Freshwater Press, 1987.
Greenwood, John O. Namesakes 1910-1919: Steel Steamers Go To War. Vol. 11. 18 vols. Namesakes. New York: Freshwater Press, 1987.
Hancock, Paul. Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 2001.
Hemming, Robert J. Ships Gone Missing: The Great Lakes Storm of 1913. New York: Contemporary Books, 1995.
Hivert-Carthew, Annick. Ghostly Lights: Great Lakes Lighthouse Tales of Terror. New York: Wilderness Adventure Books, 1998.
Kuntz, Jerry. The Heroic Age of Diving: America’s Underwater Pioneers and the Great Lakes of Lake Erie. New York: SUNY Press, 2018.
Oleszewski, Wes. Ghost Ships, Gales, and Forgotten Tales. New York: Avery Color Studios, 1995.
Oleszewski, Wes.Mysteries and Histories: Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. New York: Avery Color Studios, 1997.
Ratigan, William. Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals. Second. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960.
Witten, Sally Sue. Lake Erie Ports and Boats: In Vintage Postcards. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001.