Accidents involving vessels are not considered as new to the oceans or seas across the planet. Factors such as storms, icebergs, and many other reasons have left thousands of shipwrecks lying on the seabed. Keep in mind that it’s not just the oceans or seas where the vessels meet with accidents. Several freshwater bodies worldwide are also witness of a significant number of vessels sinking or resting under the water for years. However, the Great Lakes of North America is known as one of such prominent freshwater bodies.
The Great Lakes is located in North America on Canada’s border form an essential internal navigable channel in the Central North American region. It also connects the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River. However, being the largest group of freshwater lakes, the Great Lakes also has a clear history of marine transportation since the 17th century.
Numerable shipwrecks of hapless vessels have been discovered in the Great Lakes. It has also given rise to the connotation that is Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. However, according to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, the Great lakes have caused the sinking of around 6,000 ships with 30,000 people’s death.
Le Griffon
Le Griffon is known as one of the greatest mysteries of the Great Lakes. It went missing in Lake Michigan in 1679. Keep in consideration that the Le Griffon is also believed to be the first full-sized sailing ship traversed on the upper Great Lakes of North America.
There have been more than twenty claims made of its discovery in the past. Most of the discoveries claim to be proven wrong. The ship was built by French explorer René Robert Cavelier, La Salle, and Le Griffon that had reached on an island in Lake Michigan in 1679.
During the return trip from Island to Nigeria, this vessel went missing in the area that is also known as Green Bay. However, in 2001, the Great Lakes shipwreck hunter claimed the discovery of its wreck in Northern Lake.
Edmund Fitzgerald
The Edmund Fitzgerald is known as one of the most popular recounted Great Lake shipwreck anecdotes. The ship was launched in 1958, and it was the largest ship on the Great Lakes, for thirteen years to come, until 1971.
The American Great Lakes freighter was wrecked during November in 1975 on the Lake Superior and all its crew losing their lives. This ship was caught in a severe storm while traveling from Wisconsin to a steel mill near Detroit. However, the vessel sank in Canadian waters, and the wreck was discovered by a U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft in 1975 as lying in the sea.
Fedora
Fedora was one of the larger class of freighters. This vessel met along with a fire accident in 1901 when en route to Ashland from Duluth. Fedora was one of the stoutest vessels built at that time. Keep into consideration; Fedora was met its unprecedented fate because of a fire outbreak in the engine cabin at the start of the 20th century.
None of the crew aboard the vessel lost their lives. However, Fedora became a lost cause as it completely drowned into the waters of Chicago. Moreover, the Great Lake shipwreck of the vessel Fedora also lies in the Lake Superior depths.
See also : panama canal
