List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes

Map of the shipwrecks in the Great Storm of 1913

The Great Lakes, a collection of five freshwater lakes located in North America, have been sailed upon since at least the 17th century, and thousands of ships have been sunk while traversing them. Many of these ships were never found, so the exact number of shipwrecks in the Lakes is unknown; the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum estimates 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives lost,[1] while historian and mariner Mark Thompson has estimated that the total number of wrecks is likely more than 25,000.[2] In the period between 1816, when the Invincible was lost, to the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, the Whitefish Point area alone has claimed at least 240 ships.[2]

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
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  1. ^ "The Great Lakes Mariners Memorial". Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Archived from the original on 17 December 2009.
  2. ^ a b Thompson, Mark L. (2000). Graveyard of the Lakes. Wayne State University Press, Detroit. pp. 17, 18, 22, 315, 317–330. ISBN 978-0-8143-3226-9.