The Straits of Mackinac
The narrow gate between two great lakes
A four-mile-wide passage carries nearly all traffic between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and everything that moved between the two had to thread it.
Every vessel bound between the upper lakes funnelled through the straits, and the crossing offered little room to manoeuvre. Fog closed the passage for days at a time, currents run hard through the narrows, and shoals lie close to the shipping track off Mackinac Island and St. Ignace. Winter ice held ships fast and crushed hulls, and the concentration of traffic in a confined channel made collision the most common cause of loss.
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Records in These Waters
AvailableCarl D. Bradley
AH-WR-1492Beaver Island, Michigan
1958 · Self-Unloading Bulk Freighter
AvailableCayuga
AH-WR-0238Mackinaw City, Michigan
1895 · Bulk Freighter
RegisteredCedarville
AH-WR-0146Mackinaw City, Michigan
1965 · Bulk Freighter · 40-110 deep
AvailableColonel Ellsworth
AH-WR-0262Mackinaw City, Michigan
1896 · Schooner · 70-85 deep
AvailableDolphin
AH-WR-1935Mackinaw City, Michigan
1869 · Schooner · 110 ft deep
AvailableEber Ward
AH-WR-0761Straits of Mackinac, Michigan
1909 · Package Freighter · 110-145 deep
AvailableElva
AH-WR-1936Mackinac Island, Michigan
1954 · Passenger And Freight Steamer (Later Barge) · 120 ft deep
AvailableFormerly Known as St. Andrew (unidentified)
AH-WR-0265Straits of Mackinac, Michigan
Long attributed to an 1868 ice loss of the schooner St. Andrew, an identification since disproved · Schooner · 52-60 deep
AvailableFred McBrier
AH-WR-1937Mackinaw City, Michigan
1890 · Wooden Bulk Freighter · 100 ft deep
AvailableM. Stalker
AH-WR-1938Mackinaw City, Michigan
1886 · Schooner · 100 ft deep
AvailableMaitland
AH-WR-0215Mackinaw City, Michigan
1871 · Barque · 80 to 90 feet deep
AvailableMinneapolis
AH-WR-0239Mackinaw City, Michigan
1894 · Bulk Freighter
AvailableNewell A. Eddy
AH-WR-1648Cheboygan, Michigan
1893 · Three-Masted Schooner Barge · 168 ft deep
AvailableNorthwest
AH-WR-0264Mackinac Bridge area, Michigan
1898 · Schooner · 75 ft deep
RegisteredSandusky
AH-WR-0147Mackinaw City, Michigan
1856 · Brig · 70-84 deep
AvailableSS Eber Ward
AH-WR-0145Mackinaw City, Michigan
1909 · Package Freighter · 110-145 deep
AvailableUganda
AH-WR-0263White Shoals, Straits of Mackinac, Michigan
1913 · Bulk Freighter · 185-207 deep
AvailableWilliam H. Barnum
AH-WR-0214Mackinaw City, Michigan
1894 · Bulk Steamer · 60 to 75 feet deep
AvailableWilliam Young
AH-WR-1939Mackinaw City, Michigan
1891 · Schooner Barge · 125 ft deep
