This Once Mighty Great Lakes Ship Was Turned Into A Wall In Lake Michigan

While traveling in the Upper Peninsula, I discovered that the Great Lakes are home to so many different shipwrecks throughout history. Commonly, we only really recognize one of the main shipwrecks in the Edmund Fitzgerald, but the fact is that there are so many ships that have been lost in the Great Lakes that one of the most well-known shipwrecks somewhat overshadows the rest.

Then there are some ships that are just decommissioned from work and put to better use, which is the case of the SS Amasa Stone. This was a ship that was 545 feet long and was built for the Masaba Steamship Company in Wyandotte by Detroit Shipbuilding Company.

Her first voyage was in 1905, and during her time on the Great Lakes, she saw many things, including when she rammed and sank the Eturia, a heavy steamer, during immense fog, just a few months after her first voyage.

Ultimately, the ship would last about 45 years on the Great Lakes until it was decommissioned. But the interesting thing about the ship is that you can still see remnants of it today, located off Lake Michigan in Port Medusa in Charlevoix.

What was once a grand ship is now serving as a break wall, according to the Wikipedia page:

Amasa Stone made her last trip in 1959 and in 1960 was decommissioned and laid up. In 1964 she was sold to the Marine Salvage Ltd. of Port Colborne, Ontario, and in 1965 sold on to the Medusa Portland Cement Company of Charlevoix, Michigan, where, joined by the steamer Charles S. Hebard, she would function as a dock and breakwater. Both ships were stripped down to their hulls and sunk at the port entrance in Charlevoix, where they remain to this day.