Shipwreck · Lake Michigan · Foundered
SS Lac La Belle
A package freighter built in 1864, wrecked on Lake Michigan. The record: “Sank in a storm on Lake Michigan.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Package freighter
- Builder
- Ira Lafrinier of Cleveland, Ohio
- Launched
- April 30, 1864
- Completed
- 1864
- Length
- 218 ft (66 m)
- Beam
- 32 ft (10 m)
- Tonnage
- 872.5 GRT; 1187.19 GRT (after re-measurement)
- Propulsion
- 2 × 4–bladed fixed pitch propellers
- Fate
- Sank in a storm on Lake Michigan
- Lake
- Lake Michigan
- Coordinates
- 42.6025° N, 87.5267° W
The story
Read the full history
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Michigan wrecks
- Rosinco5.3 mi · lost 1928
- SS L.R. Doty10 mi · lost 1898
- SS Merchant15 mi · lost 1875
- PS Lady Elgin30 mi · lost 1860
- PS Alpena32 mi · lost 1880
- SS Milwaukee (b. 1868)33 mi
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
On the horizon
Nearest lights
- Racine Reef Light14 mi
- Kenosha North Pier Light14 mi
- Kenosha Light15 mi
On shore
Worth the stop
- Illinois Beach State Park19 mi · beach
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article SS Lac La Belle, retrieved 2026-10-11. We print the fields as recorded and add nothing; a missing field means the record is silent. Tonnage and dimensions were often measured more than one way in their day, so they can differ between sources.
Chart shoreline generalized from Natural Earth (public domain). Not for navigation. Something wrong or missing? Write to contact@greatamericanlakes.com.