Shipwreck · Lake Michigan · Foundered
SS Vernon
A passenger and package freighter built in 1886, lost on Lake Michigan in 1887. The record: “Sank October 29, 1887.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Passenger and package freighter
- Builder
- James P. Smith of Chicago, Illinois
- Completed
- September 1/2, 1886
- Length
- 159 ft (48 m)
- Beam
- 25 ft (8 m)
- Tonnage
- 694.94 GRT; 560.41 NRT
- Propulsion
- 1 × fixed pitch propeller
- Crew
- 23–25
- Fate
- Sank October 29, 1887
- Lake
- Lake Michigan
- Coordinates
- 44.2022° N, 87.4122° W
The same decade
Michigan losses of the 1880s
- PS Alpena1880 · foundered
- SS Michigan1885 · foundered
- SS Selah Chamberlain1886 · collision
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Michigan wrecks
- SS S. C. Baldwin2.1 mi · lost 1908
- Rouse Simmons5.0 mi · lost 1912
- Arctic12 mi · lost 1930
- SS Francis Hinton13 mi · lost 1909
- Home19 mi · lost 1858
- Gallinipper20 mi · lost 1851
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Point Beach State Forest Kayak Site4.9 mi
- Vets Park and Boat Launch8.9 mi
- Two Creeks Access9.7 mi
- Thiede Road Canoe Access10 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
- Rawley Point Light4.8 mi
- Two Rivers Light8.4 mi
- Manitowoc Breakwater Light14 mi
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article SS Vernon, 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.