Travel on the Lakes has not been without risks.

There are parts where no land is visible because of the immense size of the Lakes: thus they are sometimes referred to as inland seas .Storms and reefs are a common threat, and many thousands of ships have sunk in these waters. It is estimated that between 6,000 and 10,000 ships have sunk or been stranded since the early 1800s, many with partial or total loss of crew. This area is prone to sudden and severe storms, particularly in the autumn from late October until early December. The Great Lakes storm of 1913became the worst Great Lakes storm on record: at least 12 ships sank, and 31 more were stranded on rocks and beaches. At least 248 sailors lost their lives over that weekend. The SS Edsumd Fitzgerald which sankNovember10 1975 was famously the last major freighter lost on the lakes. She sank just over 30 miles offshore from Whitefish Point in Lake Superior. For many years in the late 1700s and early 1800s, wars were fought over the control of the Lakes and many warships were built for the inland seas, ranging from small and swift sloops-of-war to three-deckers capable of standing in any line of battle.USS Freedom LCS-1 is the newest warship to be built on the Great Lakes. The Rush Bagot Agreement of 1817 limits the number of armed vessels permitted on the Great Lakes.

The greatest concentration of these wrecks lies near Thunder Bay, Michigan beneath Lake Huron, near the point where eastbound and westbound shipping lanes converge. Today there is a U.S. NOAA Marine Archeology Research Station located in the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary. Here divers can explore more than 200 shipwrecks that form one of the most concentrated and best preserved maritime archeology sites in the world.

On June 11, 1918, the 126 t. Reid salvage tug SALVOR foundered in a storm seven miles off the desolate southwest coast of Manitoulin Island, Lake Huron. John Henry Davidson, one of her crewmen, in 1976 wrote this poem describing her loss. He would regularly recite this poem when talking of his experiences. It is provided by Davidson's son, John T. Davidson, Marion IL.

 THE SINKING OF THE TUG SALVOR August 13, 1918

 She was a ship with a stately build

And talk about a steamship run

It was a dark and stormy night

For a raft of logs up in Georgian Bay.

The seas rolled high by the lightship

And it wasn't long ere the Salvor

We laid at the dock till morning

And talk about the weather

Things went well till Tuesday

The wind began to whistle

By four o'clock she foundered

The seas put the fire out and the

We launched the steel lifeboat

And things looked like some would have

to swim.

The fireman jumped in the lifeboat

For he knew if he didn't

He bailed it out with a dipper and pail

The painter to the rail.

Landed on a rocky shore

Knowing the Salvor was no more.

9/7/1976 by John Henry Davidson

©2000 John Thompson Davidson

Great Lakes Shipwreck Guide

Wickipedia has 24 pages of information on shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.