Shipwreck · Lake Superior · Foundered
SS Superior City
A bulk freighter, propeller built in 1898, lost on Lake Superior in 1920. The record: “Sank in Whitefish Bay 20 August 1920 after colliding with Willis L. King.”
The vessel
On the record
- Type
- Bulk freighter, propeller
- Builder
- Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, Lorain, Ohio
- Launched
- 13 April 1898
- Completed
- 1898
- Length
- 450 ft (137 m)
- Beam
- 50 ft (15 m)
- Tonnage
- 3693 NRT; 4785 GRT
- Propulsion
- Propeller, 1900 hp engine
- Crew
- 33
- Fate
- Sank in Whitefish Bay 20 August 1920 after colliding with Willis L. King
- Lake
- Lake Superior
- Coordinates
- 46.7252° N, 84.8728° W
The story
Read the full history
The same decade
Superior losses of the 1920s
- City of Bangor1926 · stranded
- Lambton1922 · foundered
- Miztec1921 · foundered
- SS America1928 · foundered
- SS Glenlyon1924 · foundered
- SS Harriet B.1922 · foundered
- SS Kamloops1927 · foundered
On the bottom nearby
Nearest Superior wrecks
- SS Comet0.6 mi · lost 1875
- SS John B. Cowle4.5 mi · lost 1909
- SS Vienna4.5 mi · lost 1892
- SS Myron9.3 mi · lost 1919
- Miztec11 mi · lost 1921
- SS M.M. Drake11 mi · lost 1901
Straight-line distance between published positions.
By boat
Closest launches
- Whitefish Point Harbor5.0 mi
- Tahquamenon Falls Bay15 mi
On the horizon
Nearest lights
- Whitefish Point Light5.1 mi
- Crisp Point Light18 mi
On shore
Worth the stop
- Tahquamenon Falls and Whitefish Point5.1 mi · park
Source
Vessel facts on this page come from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article SS Superior City, 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.