SS ''Lafayette'' was a long

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

bulk freighter that broke in two in the Mataafa Storm of 1905 near Encampment Island,

Two Harbors, Minnesota Two Harbors is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Minnesota, United States, along the shore of Lake Superior. The population was 3,633 at the 2020 census. Minnesota State Highway 61 serves as a main route in Two Harbors. Gooseberry ...

. She was part of the "College Line" of ships; a group of five completely identical vessels named after the colleges attended by five of Pittsburgh Steamship's executives. The Lafayette's sister ships were: ''Harvard'', , and the . ''Lafayette'' was sailing with her barge ''Manilla,'' which crashed into her when she ran ashore. The waves caused the ship to break in two, the stern stayed on the rocks, while the bow was pounded to pieces by the waters of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

. One life was lost. The ship was declared a total loss (the cost of the ship was about $300,000). The stern of ''Lafayette'' was used in 1909 to build the steamer ''J.S. Ashley''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafayette, SS Shipwrecks of Lake Superior Maritime incidents in 1905 1900 ships Ships built in Lorain, Ohio Steamships of the United States Great Lakes freighters Shipwrecks of the Minnesota coast Wreck diving sites in the United States Ships sunk in storms