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G.P. Griffith

Ohio waters · lost 1850

  • Fire
  • Lives lost: 241–289

No public position. General area: Off Willowick, Ohio, in Lake County, less than half a mile from the beach.

The steamer G.P. Griffith passing the Buffalo lighthouse, 1850 engraving
Unidentified engraver, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Toned for this site.

Before dawn on June 17, 1850, the immigrant steamer G.P. Griffith caught fire off Lake County, Ohio, ran onto a sandbar short of the beach and burned. Between 241 and 289 people died, one of the worst losses of life in Great Lakes history. A mass grave on the beach was later taken by the lake.

The story

Once the Erie Canal linked New York to Buffalo, Lake Erie became part of an all-water route for settlers heading west, and steamers were built in numbers to carry them, as Ohio's historical marker at Willowick explains.[2] The G.P. Griffith, named for the businessman Griffith P. Griffith, was launched at Maumee, Ohio, in 1848; the marker gives 1847. She was 193 feet long, of 587 tons, and drew only about six feet of water empty, with 56 staterooms in her upper cabin.[1]

On June 16, 1850, she left Buffalo for Toledo with about 326 passengers, many of them recent immigrants from England, Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia, calling at Erie and Fairport on the way.[1,2] At about 4 a.m. on June 17 the wheelsman reported sparks around the smokestacks, and Captain C.C. Roby turned for shore. The ship's speed fanned the fire, which drove the passengers forward; the crew left their posts and the paddle wheels slowed to a stop, but momentum carried her onto a sandbar in about eight feet of water, less than half a mile from the beach.[1]

Most of those who jumped drowned, many pulled under by others who could not swim. The captain and his family died; the barber's wife was the only woman to survive. Because the ship's records burned, the toll is uncertain: at least 241 and perhaps 289, with only 37 survivors accounted for.[1] The marker says contemporary accounts listed 286 dead, that many of the settlers carried their money sewn into their clothing, and that most of the victims were buried in a mass grave on the beach that the lake has since reclaimed.[2] Wikipedia ranks the loss as the third-worst on the Great Lakes, after the Eastland in 1915 and the Lady Elgin in 1860.[1,3] A monument to the dead was put up at Willowick in 2000, and the state marker stands at Lakefront Metropark nearby.[1,2]

Sources differ: Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks gives June 18, 1850; the ship's article and the state marker give June 17.

Lives lost: At least 241 and perhaps 289 (Wikipedia); contemporary accounts cited by the state historical marker listed 286. Only 37 survivors were ever accounted for.

Questions people ask

How many people died on the G.P. Griffith?

At least 241 and perhaps 289; Ohio's historical marker says contemporary accounts listed 286. The ship's records burned, and only 37 survivors were ever accounted for.

Where did the G.P. Griffith burn?

Off Willowick in Lake County, Ohio. She ran onto a sandbar in about eight feet of water less than half a mile from the beach, where a state historical marker now stands at Lakefront Metropark.

Learn more

Museums and groups are linked for further reading; they are not connected with this site.

Look, don't take

Look, don't take. Shipwrecks and everything on them are protected by law; removing or disturbing anything can be a crime.

  • United States: under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (43 U.S.C. § 2105) the U.S. claims title to abandoned shipwrecks embedded in a state's submerged lands, or resting on them and eligible for the National Register, and transfers that title to the state.[4][5][6]
  • Ohio: R.C. 1506.32 requires a permit from the Director of Natural Resources, approved by the Ohio History Connection, to recover, alter, salvage or destroy abandoned property on, in or near a submerged watercraft or aircraft in Lake Erie.[7]

How Lake Erie wrecks are protected

Diving Lake Erie wrecks is dangerous: cold water, poor visibility, depth, entanglement and boat traffic. Nothing here is dive guidance or a dive position. Dive only with proper training, a qualified operator and current information from the groups that maintain moorings.

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Sources

  1. SS G. P. Griffith, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  2. Ohio Historical Marker 9-43: The Griffith Disaster, 1850, Ohio History Connection (Remarkable Ohio historical marker database). Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  4. 43 U.S. Code 2105 - Rights of access (Abandoned Shipwreck Act: title to abandoned shipwrecks), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  5. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  6. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  7. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .

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