Shipwreck · Lake Michigan · Foundered
SS Michigan
A steamship built in 1881, lost on Lake Michigan in 1885. The record: “Foundered while trapped in pack ice, Lake Michigan, March 19, 1885.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Steamship
- Builder
- Detroit Dry Dock Company of Wyandotte, Michigan, United States
- Launched
- August 20, 1881
- Length
- 204 ft (62 m)
- Beam
- 35 ft (11 m)
- Tonnage
- 1,024
- Propulsion
- Two propellers
- Crew
- 30
- Fate
- Foundered while trapped in pack ice, Lake Michigan, March 19, 1885
- Lake
- Lake Michigan
- Coordinates
- 42.8001° N, 86.5164° W
The same decade
Michigan losses of the 1880s
- PS Alpena1880 · foundered
- SS Selah Chamberlain1886 · collision
- SS Vernon1887 · foundered
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Michigan wrecks
- SS Ironsides20 mi
- SS Milwaukee (b. 1868)20 mi
- PS Alpena22 mi · lost 1880
- SS John V. Moran27 mi · lost 1899
- SS Henry Cort31 mi · lost 1934
- SS L.R. Doty45 mi · lost 1898
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Lake Macatawa17 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
On shore
Worth the stop
- Grand Haven State Park22 mi · beach
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article SS Michigan, 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.
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