The SS America wreck on the reef of Washington Harbor

The SS America was a sturdy packet boat built in 1898 by the Detroit Dry Dock Company, tasked with moving mail, fish, and people through the inland sea. She spent her career running into ice floes, colliding with other steamers, and striking reefs.

She had a history of accidents. On 7 June 1924, she struck a reef, capsized, and sank off Isle Royale, Michigan, though she was refloated, repaired, and returned to service. Her final voyage started on June 6, 1928. She reached Washington Harbor in the early morning hours to drop off passengers. Five minutes after the captain handed the helm to the first mate, the ship struck a submerged reef. The crew managed to get everyone into lifeboats before the ship settled into the north gap of the harbor. She left her bow, forward deck, and wheelhouse above the waterline.

Salvage companies tried to raise her, but the math never worked out. The ice moved her around during the winter of 1928-29 and eventually sheared off the wheelhouse. Divers in the 1960s tried to haul her to Duluth to be a museum, but the storms won. Some people even say a diver sabotaged the effort because he wanted her to stay put.

Today, she sits 190 feet from the shore. The wreck is shallow enough to see from the surface but deep enough to be a favorite for divers. It is a popular spot for souvenir hunting, which has stripped most portable objects from the cabins. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society still tries to patch up her interior walls against the lake's constant motion.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons