From the day that French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle launched the Griffin in 1679 to the 1975 sinking of the celebrated Edmund Fitzgerald, thousands of commercial ships have sailed on the vast and perilous waters of the Great Lakes. In a harbinger of things to come, on the return leg of its first trip in late summer 1679, the Griffin disappeared and has never been seen again. In the centuries since then, the records show that an alarming number of shipwrecks have occurred on the Great Lakes. If vessels that wrecked but were later repaired and returned to service are included, the number certainly swells into the thousands. Most did not mysteriously vanish like the Griffin. Instead, they suffered the occupational hazards of every lake boat: collisions, groundings, strands, fires, boiler explosions, and capsizes. Many of these disasters took the lives of crews and passengers. The fearsome wrath of the storms that brew over the Great Lakes has challenged and defeated some of the staunchest vessels constructed in the shipyards of port cities along the U.S. and Canadian lakeshores. Here Richard Gebhart tells the tales of some of these ships and their captains and crews, from their launches to their sad demises—or sometimes, their celebrated retirements. This volume is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the maritime history of the Great Lakes.

The rich maritime history of the New World is the focus of this work, bringing together essays by leading nautical archaeologists. The narrative is enhanced by paintings, charts, diagrams and maps.

Complete history of Lake Superior shipwrecks.

Documents the stories of a number of sunken vessels on the United States territory in Lake Ontario, among them the steamer Ellsworth, the St. Peter, the Homer Warren, the schooner Etta Belle, the Coast Guard cable boat CG-56022, the schooner William Elgin, the Orcadian, the steamer Samuel F. Hodge, the W.Y. Emery, the British warship Ontario, the schooner C. Reeve, the Queen of the Lakes, the schooner Atlas, the Ocean Wave, the steamer Roberval, the U.S. Air Force C-45, the schooner Three Brothers, the steamship Nisbet Grammer, the steamship Bay State, the schooner Royal Albert, the sloop Washington, and the schooner Hartford. Appendices look at three particular locations: Ford Shoals, Mexico Bay, and the lake near Oswego.

This comprehensive volume details the complex art of wooden shipbuilding in ancient and early modern times. The text includes discussion of ancient, medieval, and post-medieval shipwrecks, which represent a cross section of technology as seen through a select group of archaeological finds.

This is a comprehensive illustrated guide to ships lost at sea and the treasures they have yielded, from Roman ships laden with bronze statues to the gold-carrying blockade runners of World War II.

Discusses sea hazards and shipwrecks, and explores the mysteries behind the sinking of such ships as the Titanic, the Mary Rose, and the Andrea Doria.

Containing almost a fifth of the world's fresh water, the Great Lakes system of Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario in North America are vast inland expanses, and subject to the same hazards for shipping more commonly found on the high seas. Since the seventeenth century, when the first wooden vessels of colonists and adventurers set a course across them, the lakes have claimed many ships as well as the lives of those unfortunates aboard them. Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes narrates the tales of over a hundred of them. From the dramatic stories of the many ships that have foundered with all hands in the great storms that can sweep across the lakes, to the tales of vessels like the Gunilda, lost because her wealthy master refused to pay a few dollars for a pilot, this book is packed with the fascinating narratives of Great Lakes disasters. Including photographs of the boats it is also a document of change and progress, showing how the ships have been developed over the centuries as well as the industrial cities and towns that have grown from the wealth brought by the shipping lanes of the lakes. From the griffon, which went down without a trace in 1679, to the more recent disaster of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which was ripped apart and sank with all twenty-nine lives onboard lost, Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes includes tales of courage and tragedy, stupidity and heroism. Inside find: The tales of over a hundred of the most famous shipwrecks on North America's Great Lakes, including the Edmund Fitzgerald, Daniel J. Morrell, Eastland, and many more. Fully illustrated with archival photography. Chronological listing of wrecks. Dramatic stories of the ships' last moments - the tragedies, courage, and the miraculous rescues.

When you think of a shipwreck, what image springs to mind? A tall sailing ship on the rocks, or perhaps the sinking Titanic surrounded by lifeboats? Historian Richard M. Jones has put together 50 stories of lost ships throughout history that are among the most important, infamous and in some cases tragic ships in the whole of history. When did two liners collide and lead to one of the greatest rescues in history? How did a Scotsman become an American hero against his own country? Which warship sank with gold bullion on board during the Second World War? This book tells the story of these fascinating cases plus many more, explores the largest shipwrecks, the treasure wrecks and the ones that are talked about still as the most famous. Starting at the tiny island of Alderney in 1592, we take a journey through history, through the First and Second World Wars, into the age of the passenger ferry and finally to the modern day migrant issues in the Mediterranean Sea. Never before have these fifty wrecks come together in a book that really brings home to the reader just how many lost vessels there are, how deadly many can be and what this teaches us today about our own history.

The Sunshine State has a rich maritime history spanning more than five centuries. Tragically, part of that history includes thousands of ships that have met their fates in Florida waters. Potentially more than 5,000 shipwrecks reside off Florida's 1,200 miles of coastline, with hundreds more lost in the state's interior rivers. In and of itself, the Florida Keys archipelago, consisting of approximately 1,700 islands stretching 200 miles, is littered with the remains of close to 1,000 shipwrecks. In fact, many features of the Florida Keys were named after various shipwreck events, such as Fowey Rocks, which earned its name after the 1748 wrecking of the British warship HMS Fowey, and Alligator Reef, where the schooner USS Alligator met her demise in 1822. Florida's Shipwrecks utilizes captivating images to illustrate dramatic stories of danger and peril at sea, introducing readers to a fascinating cross-section of Florida's shipwreck history.