Shipwreck · Lake Superior · Collision
John M. Osborn
A propeller, wooden steam barge built in 1882, lost on Lake Superior in 1884. The record: “Sank in Whitefish Bay 27 July 1884 after she was rammed by the Alberta.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Propeller, wooden steam barge
- Builder
- Morley & Hill of Marine City, Michigan
- Completed
- 1882
- Length
- 178 ft (54 m)
- Beam
- 32 ft (10 m)
- Tonnage
- 891.02 Gross Register Tonnage; 710.95 Net Register Tonnage
- Propulsion
- Propeller
- Fate
- Sank in Whitefish Bay 27 July 1884 after she was rammed by the Alberta
- Lake
- Lake Superior
- Coordinates
- 46.8662° N, 85.0868° W
The same decade
Superior losses of the 1880s
- Lucerne1886 · foundered
- Manistee1883
- PS City of Ashland1887 · fire
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Superior wrecks
- SS John Mitchell2.2 mi
- Miztec4.5 mi · lost 1921
- SS Myron4.9 mi · lost 1919
- SS M.M. Drake6.2 mi · lost 1901
- SS Edmund Fitzgerald9.2 mi · lost 1975
- SS Vienna10 mi · lost 1892
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Whitefish Point Harbor9.3 mi
- Little Lake Harbor17 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
- Whitefish Point Light9.0 mi
- Crisp Point Light11 mi
On shore
Worth the stop
- Tahquamenon Falls and Whitefish Point9.0 mi · park
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article John M. Osborn, 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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