Storms that sank ships on Lake Erie

Lake Erie is shallow, so a strong wind raises steep, dangerous waves quickly. These are the storms that sank several ships at once, told ship by ship with the sources for each.

The October 1893 gale October 14, 1893 · 2 wreck pages · Lives lost on Lake Erie: 48 On October 14, 1893, a storm that Wikipedia's shipwreck list links to the Great Charleston Hurricane swept Lake Erie from end to end. The steamers Dean Richmond and…
The September 1900 gale September 11, 1900 · 2 wreck pages · Lives lost on Lake Erie: 10 In September 1900 the remnants of the hurricane that had just destroyed Galveston, Texas, tracked north to the Great Lakes. On the night of September 11–12 they swept…
The December 1909 gale December 7, 1909 · 2 wreck pages · Lives lost on Lake Erie: 50–58 A gale with snow swept Lake Erie on December 7 and 8, 1909. The car ferry Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 vanished between Conneaut and Port Stanley with everyone aboard…
The Great Lakes Storm of November 1913 November 7, 1913 · 1 wreck page · Lives lost on Lake Erie: 6 The Great Lakes Storm of November 7–10, 1913, the Big Blow or White Hurricane, killed more than 250 people across the lakes, most of them on Lake Huron. On Lake Erie…
The Black Friday storm of October 1916 October 20, 1916 · 4 wreck pages · Lives lost on Lake Erie: 49–55 On Friday, October 20, 1916, a violent storm swept western Lake Erie and sank four large vessels in a single day: the whaleback James B. Colgate, the steel freighter…

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.
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.
Michigan: MCL 324.76107 forbids recovering, altering or destroying abandoned property on Great Lakes bottomlands without a joint state permit; penalties run from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to 10 years.
New York: Education Law § 233 makes it a class A misdemeanor to investigate, excavate, remove, injure or destroy objects of historical or archaeological interest on, in or under state-owned lands without the written permission of the Commissioner of Education.
Pennsylvania: title to abandoned shipwrecks in Pennsylvania's part of Lake Erie passes to the Commonwealth under the federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act, and state permission is required to disturb them.
Ontario: under the Ontario Heritage Act no one may alter a marine archaeological site or remove an artifact from it without a provincial licence; fines for breaking this rule can reach $1,000,000.

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.