Shipwreck · Lake Superior
Samuel P. Ely
A topsail schooner built in 1869, lost on Lake Superior in 1896. The record: “Wrecked, 30 October 1896.” The wreck is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Topsail schooner
- Builder
- J.P. Clark Shipyard
- Launched
- 4 June 1869
- Length
- 200 ft (61 m)
- Beam
- 31 ft (9 m)
- Tonnage
- 627.24 GRT; 595.85 NRT
- Fate
- Wrecked, 30 October 1896
- National Register
- Listed 18 June 1992 · ref. 92000694
- Lake
- Lake Superior
- Coordinates
- 47.0117° N, 91.6778° W
The same decade
Superior losses of the 1890s
- Antelope1897 · foundered
- Mayflower1891 · foundered
- SS Henry Chisholm1898 · foundered
- SS R. G. Stewart1899 · fire
- SS Samuel Mather1891 · foundered
- SS Vienna1892 · collision
- SS Western Reserve1892 · foundered
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Superior wrecks
- SS Harriet B.4.4 mi · lost 1922
- SS Benjamin Noble5.4 mi · lost 1914
- Niagara (1904)6.3 mi · lost 1904
- SS Lafayette8.3 mi · lost 1905
- SS Robert Wallace12 mi · lost 1902
- SS Onoko12 mi · lost 1915
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Two Harbors, Agate Bay boat launch0.6 mi
- Burlington Bay1.2 mi
- Flood Bay Wayside Rest2.5 mi
- Stewart River3.4 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
On shore
Worth the stop
- North Shore Scenic Drive — Highway 610.8 mi · drive
- Gooseberry Falls State Park13 mi · park
- Split Rock Lighthouse20 mi · lighthouse
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Samuel P. Ely (shipwreck), 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.