Shipwreck · Lake Michigan
SS Merchant
A passenger and package freighter built in 1862, lost on Lake Michigan in 1875. The record: “Wrecked on Lake Michigan.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Passenger and package freighter
- Builder
- David Bell shipyard of Buffalo, New York; Construction supervised by J. V. F. Wilson
- Launched
- July 12, 1862
- Completed
- August 2, 1862
- Length
- 200 ft (61 m)
- Beam
- 29 ft (9 m)
- Tonnage
- 720.66 GRT
- Propulsion
- 1 × fixed pitch propeller (10 ft diameter, 14 ft pitch)
- Fate
- Wrecked on Lake Michigan
- Lake
- Lake Michigan
- Coordinates
- 42.7300° N, 87.7642° W
The same year
Also lost in 1875
- Cornelia B. WindiateHuron · foundered
- EquinoxMichigan · foundered
- SS CometSuperior · foundered
The same decade
Michigan losses of the 1870s
- Grace A. Channon1877 · collision
- Lizzie Throop1873 · foundered
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Michigan wrecks
- Rosinco10 mi · lost 1928
- SS Lac La Belle15 mi
- United States lightship LV-5720 mi
- SS L.R. Doty25 mi · lost 1898
- SS Appomattox26 mi · lost 1905
- SS Milwaukee (1929)28 mi · lost 1929
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Lake Michigan Access (Pershing Park)0.8 mi
- Simmon's Island Boat Harbor9.7 mi
- Bender Park Boat Launch10 mi
- South Shore Park Boat Ramp19 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
- Racine North Breakwater Light0.5 mi
- Racine Harbor Lighthouse and Life Saving Station0.8 mi
- Racine Reef Light1.4 mi
On shore
Worth the stop
- Illinois Beach State Park22 mi · beach
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article SS Merchant, 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.