SS Vernon 1887
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | SS Vernon | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1887 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | ship, shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Storm or weather | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 44.2022, -87.4122 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SS Vernon was a wooden-hulled American passenger and package freighter that sank in a Lake Michigan storm on October 29, 1887, near Two Rivers, Wisconsin, with the loss of between 36 and 50 lives, making her one of the deadliest shipwrecks ever to have occurred in Wisconsin. Only one of the people on board survived.
Vernon was built in 1886 in Chicago, Illinois by the James P. Smith shipyard. She was built for Alfred Booth, also of Chicago. That same year, she replaced the package freighter A. Booth (which sank on August 29, 1886, near Duluth, Minnesota) in the Duluth, Minnesota-Port Arthur, Ontario run on Lake Superior. For a time in 1887, Vernon was engaged in the iron ore trade, towing schooner barges between Lake Superior ports and Cleveland, Ohio. In July 1887, Vernon briefly came into the ownership of John Pridgeon of Detroit, Michigan, to whom she was sold as compensation for the damage done to his scow barges while they were being towed by Vernon. In August of that same year, Vernon once again became owned by Booth and was operated as part of his Booth Packing Company.
Diving & visiting
A wreck, possibly that of Vernon was found in 1908 by two fishermen, 8 miles (12.9 km) north of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, 5 miles (8.0 km) off shore in 300 feet (91.4 m) of water. The wreck of Vernon was located in 1969 by Kent Bellrichard of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She rests intact in 210 feet (64 m) of water, northeast of Two Rivers. She is keeled over to starboard side. Her pilot house and cabins which broke away when she sank, lie west of her wreck in 160 feet (48.8 m) of water. Her cargo is still intact within her hold. Her gangways are still open, confirming Axel Stone's claims of her crew not being able to close them due to her excessive load.
Location
- Recorded position: 44.2022, -87.4122 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Vernon (revision 1331839838), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Vernon today”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- SS S.C. Baldwin 1908 · 3 km
- Rouse Simmons 1912 · 8 km
- SS Continental 1904 · 8 km
- Arctic 20 km
- Home 1858 · 31 km
- SS Selah Chamberlain 1886 · 52 km
Browse more: North America wrecks · wrecks off United States · Steam era