Samuel P. Ely

Samuel P. Ely, a two-hundred-foot Great Lakes schooner built in 1869 and reinforced for carrying iron ore, coal, and other bulk cargo, worked the upper Great Lakes industrial routes for decades before wrecking off Two Harbors, Minnesota, in October 1896. While being towed toward Two Harbors with limestone, it was cast off in worsening weather; its anchors failed, and it was driven onto the breakwater and sank. All ten crewmen survived and were rescued the next day. Later damaged by souvenir hunting and salvage, the wreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and became the focus of preservation efforts as an underwater archaeological site.

Minnesota · United States