How many shipwrecks are in Lake Erie?

Why there is no single number

Counting shipwrecks is harder than it sounds. Many vessels sank in storms with no witnesses, records from the busiest years of sail and steam are scattered, and some losses were later raised, towed off or broken up. Wikipedia's article on the lake cites an estimate of perhaps 1,400^[1] to 8,000^[1] wrecks, of which about about 270^[1] are confirmed locations, and another estimate that Lake Erie holds about a quarter of the 8,000^[1] wrecks thought to lie in all the Great Lakes.^[1] It adds that most wrecks are still undiscovered, and that cold fresh water helps preserve them.^[1] The reasons the lake claimed so many ships were plain a century ago. In 1911 the Encyclopaedia Britannica noted that nearly all freight from the upper lakes ended its voyage in Lake Erie ports, that the shallow lake was easily whipped into rough and dangerous seas, and that its worst storms came in autumn, when shipping was heaviest.^[3]

Data table for this chart

Documented wrecks in this gazetteer by decade of loss.

Decade	Wrecks	Ships
1820s	2	Walk-in-the-Water (1821), Lake Serpent (1829)
1840s	1	Erie (1841)
1850s	4	Anthony Wayne (1850), G.P. Griffith (1850), Atlantic (1852), Ivanhoe (1855)
1860s	3	Sultan (1864), Cortland (1868), Morning Star (1868)
1870s	1	Stephen F. Gale (1876)
1880s	1	W.R. Hanna (1886)
1890s	5	Two Fannies (1890), Dean Richmond (1893), Wocoken (1893), Idaho (1897), Margaret Olwill (1899)
1900s	11	Idler (1900), Dundee (1900), John B. Lyon (1900), Queen of the West (1903), Adventure (1903), Philip Minch (1904), Sarah E. Sheldon (1905), City of Concord (1906), John Pridgeon Jr. (1909), Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 (1909), Clarion (1909)
1910s	8	F.H. Prince (1911), Lightship No. 82 (Buffalo) (1913), D.L. Filer (1916), James B. Colgate (1916), Marshall F. Butters (1916), Merida (1916), Isabella J. Boyce (1917), Alva B (1917)
1920s	1	Mecosta (1922)
1930s	2	Sand Merchant (1936), Argo (1937)
1940s	5	Admiral (1942), Cleveco (1942), Frank E. Vigor (1944), James H. Reed (1944), Success (1946)
1950s	2	Craftsman (1958), Hickory Stick (1958)
1960s	1	North Carolina (1968)
1990s	1	Duke Luedtke (1993)

What this gazetteer records

This site documents 169^[2] losses that we could tie to published sources: 51^[2] wrecks with full, cited pages and 118^[2] more listed briefly on the other-losses page, each with at least one citation. We also tell the stories of 5^[2] storms that sank several ships at once.^[2] Our records draw on Ohio Sea Grant's shipwreck trail, the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes at Bowling Green State University, Wikipedia's lists of wrecks, and the reports of volunteer diving groups such as Cleveland Underwater Explorers.^[4]

Look, don't take

Lake Erie's wrecks are protected by federal and state law in the United States and by provincial law in Ontario; the protection page explains the rules for each shore. This site never publishes dive positions; where a reusable public source gives a location, we show it rounded to about a kilometer, and restricted or Ontario sites show only the general area. Look, don't take. Shipwrecks and everything on them are protected by law; removing or disturbing anything can be a crime.

Questions people ask

How many shipwrecks are in Lake Erie?

Estimates cited by Wikipedia run from about 1,400 to 8,000, with about about 270 confirmed locations. No complete count exists.

Why does Lake Erie have so many shipwrecks?

Heavy traffic and shallow water. In 1911 the Encyclopaedia Britannica noted that most upper-lakes freight ended its voyage in Lake Erie, and that its shallow water made autumn storms especially destructive.