Shipwreck · Lake Superior · Foundered
SS Comet
A propeller built in 1857, lost on Lake Superior in 1875. The record: “Sank in Whitefish Bay 26 August 1875 after colliding with the Manitoba.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Propeller
- Builder
- Peck & Masters, Cleveland, Ohio
- Completed
- 1857
- Length
- 181 ft (55 m)
- Beam
- 29 ft (9 m)
- Tonnage
- 744 Gross Register Tonnage
- Propulsion
- Propeller, direct acting vertical engine
- Crew
- 19
- Fate
- Sank in Whitefish Bay 26 August 1875 after colliding with the Manitoba
- Lake
- Lake Superior
- Coordinates
- 46.7170° N, 84.8667° W
The story
Read the full history
The same year
Also lost in 1875
- Cornelia B. WindiateHuron · foundered
- EquinoxMichigan · foundered
- SS MerchantMichigan
The same decade
Superior losses of the 1870s
- PS Cumberland1877 · foundered
- Wayzata Bay Wreck1879 · foundered
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Superior wrecks
- SS Superior City0.6 mi · lost 1920
- SS John B. Cowle4.9 mi · lost 1909
- SS Vienna5.0 mi · lost 1892
- SS Myron9.9 mi · lost 1919
- Miztec11 mi · lost 1921
- SS M.M. Drake12 mi · lost 1901
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Whitefish Point Harbor5.6 mi
- Tahquamenon Falls Bay15 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
- Whitefish Point Light5.7 mi
- Crisp Point Light19 mi
- Point Iroquois Light20 mi
On shore
Worth the stop
- Tahquamenon Falls and Whitefish Point5.7 mi · park
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article SS Comet (1857), 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.